Kornélia Deres, trans. Timea Sipos

Summer 2024 | Poetry

Defective Circles

You stir in a box. A nice way to wake up.

In the dark and under a stamp, like a letter

informing of a death. First, panic. Its well-known

curves: strength and demonstration.

You know, we should switch to the outside

frequency, hear the ambient

noise. But no matter, only the rhythm

of the inner drumming: dum-dum.

Who do the lungs and heart mislead like this?

 

You stir in a box, like a cotton-

colored prescription. Companions

around you have run out. You want to

pound, but can’t even lift your hands.

Of course, it’s possible you don’t have any.

The tendon, muscle, vein, and flesh have run

out of you. Your voice does not

echo anywhere.

And this scene is too familiar,

too suspicious.

 

You should switch to someone

else’s common sense. Someone not

oppressed by dreams. Who can wake

like an adult.

 

Hibás körök

Egy dobozban ébredsz. Jó kis kelés.

Sötéten és pecsét alatt, mint halálhírt

hozó levél. Előbb a pánik. Jól ismert

körvonalai: erő és demonstráció.

Tudod, át kéne állni a külvilági

frekvenciára, hallani a megtartó

zajokat. De hiába, csak a belső

dobok tam-tam ritmusa.

Tüdő és szív így kit vezet meg?

 

Egy dobozban ébredsz, mint vatta-

színű gyógyszer. Körülötted már

kifogytak a társak. Dörömbölnél,

de kezedet sem bírod emelni.

Persze lehet, hogy nincs is.

Elfogyott belőled az ín, az izom,

az ér és hús. Hangod nem ver

visszhangot sehol.

És ez a díszlet így

túl ismerős, túl gyanús.

 

Át kéne állni valaki másnak

az észjárására. Akit nem nyomaszt

az álom. És ébredni is

felnőtt módra tud.

Kornélia Deres’s first poetry collection, Szőrapa (Terrycloth Father), was awarded Best Debut Book Prize in 2011 and addresses the dynamics of a dark father figure. Her second, Bábhasadás (The Crack of the Puppet), appeared in 2017 and touches upon the interconnections of memory, dreams, cognition, and fiction. Her latest collection is Box. She earned a PhD in 2015 from Eötvös University in Budapest, where she works as a lecturer. She’s a two-time Visegrad Literary Residency participant and a Móricz Zsigmond Literary Fellowship winner. Timea Sipos’s English translations of her poems have appeared in Denver Quarterly, Faultline, The Literary Review, and Asymptote.

Timea Sipos is a Hungarian-American author and translator with an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a certificate in literary translation from the Balassi Institute in Budapest. She is a former Steinbeck Fellow a Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival Fiction Contest winner. Her work has received support from MacDowell, the Vermont Studio Center, Bread Loaf, Tin House, the American Literary Translators Association, the Hungarian Translators’ House, the Nevada Arts Council, the Black Mountain Institute, and PEN America, among others. Learn more about her work at www.timeasipos.com 

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