The Bloody Sonnets #23

Adaptation of Krvavé sonety.

Welcome to my series of adapting Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav’s The Bloody Sonnets into free-verse. This is the twenty-third of thirty-two sonnets.

Following the adaptation, I invite you to read some reflections on the poem.

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O Lord, high in the heavens,
spinning a hidden web of paths and plans,
unfolding your purpose in a chain of worlds —
we can only measure height by eagles, clouds, 
     but we stop at the stars.

We approach infinity's gate with 
ashes of passion in our chest —
our heads spin, 
drowning in vertigo.

Even if we fly our soul to the zenith,
to the knot of lightning above the mountains,
where the rainbow bridge begins —
You cast us away with blinding beams
for our conceited character,
O Father of Lights.

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The original is in the Slovak language, which was originally written in 1914:

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Ó, vysoko dlieš, Pane! nad nami
s osnovou pomyslov, s ciest tajných sieťou,
skaď zámer svoj si v reťaz rozvil svetov…
Meriame výšku orly, chmárami,

hviezd sídlami; však dostup neznámy:
pred nekonečnom jakby uzavretou
zdúpnieme bránou, v hrudi popol vznetov,
a naše zmysly závrat omámi.

Bár v zenit pripneme aj ducha zreteľ,
na uzol blesku, vidmo, dúhy most,
by v tvoju šľapaj, k tvojej mysli vzletel,
je slepcom preds’: — hja, bezočivý hosť —
Tak svetlom zavraciaš v nás, Otče svetiel,
hneď domýšľavosť, hnedky všetečnosť…

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Reflections

A prayerful pause this one. I think its purpose is to ground us for the next sonnet, where POH will make an ask. In summer of 1914 though, with the world suddenly at war, where else to ask questions of the future but to God? In the last sonnet POH compared these war to an ant battle and now it seems he is cursing himself for wanting to know what’s in the web of paths and plans.

The biggest flourish I took with this one was I added above the mountains after lightning in a nod to the Slovak national anthem, Nad Tatrou sa blýska (There is lightning over the Tatras).

I’ve been effectively serializing this sonnets as I go through them, but it makes me wonder what the impact will be when they are fully presented. Even when I tried to read them in the book, they are bit overwhelming. I’m very curious to try the audio approach. I’m also looking forward to catching the play which will be in NYC later this year.

And today I prepare for an interview with Radio Slovakia — hopefully it will go well and they will air it, eventually. I think the purpose is to ask questions about my own web of path and plans to find my Slovak roots, but just in case, I will prepare a sonnet to read for the radio. :)

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Here’s the link to the previous sonnet.

The entire collection can be found here as well.