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