KINGA FABÓ

KINGA FABÓ

LIKE IT USED TO BE

As the body is torn out of the soul.

As the soul out of the body.

As it feels rejoicing, deep pleasure.

As two souls, two bodies meet.

As straight out of me into the other me.

Love is what long ago used to be

.

(TRANSLATED BY N. ULLRICH KATALIN)

SOUL I'VE BEEN SEEKING SO LONG...

Soul I’ve been seeking so long,

of whom I’ve been writing so oft,

who I’ve called so much,

are you nowhere, in no one?

You’re here in me, but misplaced.

From your hiding place you pour

all those self-begetting cells.

So that I’d find you nowhere.

You, who don’t exist at all,

send me a sign, one and no more.

If I still live on – let me know.

The nucleus might also think

the soul has ejected it

from itself – had too much of me.

(TRANSLATED BY  KATALIN N. ULLRICH)

OR YES

To be a sad empty vase

to be a withered flowergirl in a vase

to be a tiny microphone

to be a crawl upon a shoulder

to be a touch of one’s secret

to be become scent his body

to be silent and to remain there

to be a cuddle on a palm

to be a microphone in a body

to be a secret

slow, final and joyous

to be white and foolish

to be and to flee

to be nothing and undetected

(TRANSLATED BY MICHAEL CASTRO AND GÁBOR G. GYUKICS)

ISADORA DUNCAN DANCING

Like sculpture at first. Then, as if the sun rose in her, long

gesture.

A small smile; then very much so.

The beauty

of the rite shone; whirling.

She whirled and whirled,

flaming.

Only the body spoke. The body carried her

language.

Her dance a spell

swirling the air, a spiral she was

and

her shawl, the half circle around her,

the curve of the sea-shore and

girl,

the dancer and the dance apart…

(TRASCREATED BY CATHY STRISIK AND VERONICA GOLOS BASED ON KATALIN N. ULLRICH’S TRANSLATION.)

THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE WORD

Open, the sea appeared asleep.

Carrying its waves.

A pulse under the muted winter scene.

Throwing a smile on the beach.

A nun-spot on the hot little body.

A color on the broken glass.

A gesture that was once closed.

Lovely as the sea stood up.

Throwing a smile on the beach.

I wanted to remain an object.

But, no, immortality is not mine.

I am too strong to defend myself.

Waiting for punishment.

This and the same happened together.

Silently, I sat in the glass.

Only the spot wandered on the naked scene.

Sounds did not continue.

Only an omitted gesture.

Happiness like an unmoving dancer.

Beatings on naked, bony back.

And the sea will no longer be immortal.

(TRANSLATED BY ZSUZSANNA OZSVÁTH AND MARTHA SATZ)

HALF CIRCLES

1.

Our face is nailed down.

Our heart’s place is enshrouded by silence.

The song painted on the wall falls down.

...

2.

My face is dug up by sorrow.

The vein in my arm gets thin.

Milk tastes green in my mouth.

3.

The earth is cold:

its patches have fallen off.

Human-knot shivers on its wall.

(KATALIN N. ULLRICH)

KINGA FABÓ

KINGA FABÓ is a Hungarian poet. Her poetry has been widely published in international literary journals and poetry magazines including Modern Poetry in Translation (translated and introduced by George Szirtes); Numéro Cinq, Ink Sweat & Tears, Deep Water Literary Journal, The Screech Owl, The Original Van Gogh’s Ear, Fixpoetry, Lyrikline.org and elsewhere as well as in anthologies like The Significant Anthology, Women in War, The Colours of Refuge, Poetry Against Racism, World Poetry Yearbook 2015, Anthology of Contemporary Women's Poetry and others. Some of her individual poems have been translated into 17 languages altogether:  Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian, English, Esperanto, French, Galego, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Persian, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Tamil. One of her poems (The Ears) has among others six different Indonesian translations by six different authors. Her latest book, a  bilingual Indonesian-English poetry collection Racun/Poison was published in 2015. Fabó lives in Budapest, Hungary.