Poem by Pavol Janik
ON THE LINE MAN – WOMAN AND BACK
You escape from me
like gas.
With astonishment I watch
how with a single scrawl of your legs
you ignite your silk dress.
With such blinding nakedness you pre-empt sky-blue flame.
Blazingly ablaze and perhaps wholly otherwise
I address a fire
which you will no longer damp down.
That time I wanted to declare at least what was essential
to all chance passers-by,
to all chance passing aircraft.
So under such circumstances who wouldn’t have spoilt it?
Translated into English by James Sutherland Smith
