Return Ticket

At a news-stand, old, then I’ll buy myself a return ticket
and a children’s blue tram will take me back to the beginning
by then Life will have taught me, that I will not change,
keep me on the roof of your souls
when nothing of me remains, not even a poem,
not even the stray freckle on my palm
which gave the gypsy woman a shock
and made me repent
Yesterday in the meadows at dawn
I met my love face to face
I was sick with fear of my love
He has recovered already
but I still have fevers
Who am I leaving when in advance I forgive myself
and who, at the news-stand, is going to stand behind me?
Life has taught me, that I will not change
My comforts are return tickets in coats
I no longer wear

(Zuzana Trojanova, translated by Toby Litt and Tomas Mika, 1991)