From head to foot
the lover to his beloved is drawn
Yet love is unstable
like the crossbar of the letter N.
From day into night
lovers are drawn by their world of yes
yet love is tempered
with times they needs must say No.
The lover and his beloved each name
their love face to face
like the pathway that invites no End.
Yet lovers learn what’s new, and the same
their love remembered,
the cross-meanings that live with their Names.
The
four-line poem for the letter N in Vitezslav Nezval’s alphabet book ‘Abeceda’ (1926)
opens this metaphysical sonnet. Translation from the Czech is by Jindřich Toman &
Matthew S. Witkowsky, published in 2001.
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