Petr Král: The Last White Man
26. May 2008 05:10
for Jean-Claude Silbermann
When a Sunday finally will pass and history will be happily behind us
come by some lengthy detour
to mist over with your breath my glazed door
on the other side of which for inborn loss of memory
I am now long gone
come to read the message standing here
whilst I at the other end of the world
will carefully be wiping - or not wiping - the final gleaming bend
come to forgive me
all I never did to you
and give me lasting quittance
Someone will anyway be found for you to meet in my stead another
anonymous murderer of yours
whom you will miss in the crowd
the final shred of blood will vanish in the sleeve of the wind
even before you place your finger in its button-hole
The heather of years grows burgeoning as always on another river quayside
on a further person’s heels
Irrespective of all decrees on calm or gusting breeze
THERE IS SILENCE
all one need do is swallow the gag forgo the superfluous speech
The fingerprints are buried in the soundless white of marble
and empty mirrors likewise
will lose their appetite for laughter
(1975)
Translated by James Naughton