The Bloody Sonnets #24

Adaptation of Krvavé sonety.

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

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

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And yet, God — 
     permit me peace
which my curiosity contests.
It compels me to crawl through a thousand thorns!
Disturbing days,
     never-ending nights.

My heart starves, my spirit hungers,
Oh lend me a lens to find the future!
How, 
from the waste of these wicked waves
     will Slavdom stand?

How strong a ship? How healthy its hull?
I need to know: give me this! Show me a sign,
provide a promise of protection?!
Ah, I see — it is at the brink of breach.
I know, it has sinned, and 
sinned 
so 
much.
but forgive it! hold it! and save it!

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

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A predsa — dovoľ, Bože! — Pokoja
mi nedá zvedavosť, jej ostré osti
ma omínajú: tisíc do úzkostí
upadám za dňa, a tie neskoja

ni noci, balzam ich, snov povoja;
krváca srdce mi, môj duch sa postí: —
och! dovoľ nazrieť v tmaň mi budúcnosti:
jak z toho strašného vĺn príboja

Slavianstvo vyjde? loď jak statná, bdelá?
To rád bych znal: ó, odcloň mi! a daj
znak, má-li v tebe ochraňovateľa?
Ha! vidím, zašlo bezdna na pokraj…
Viem, hrešilo, ach, hrešilo tak veľa;
však odpusť mu! ho zdrž! a zachovaj —

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Reflections

The final push continues! Yesterday was quite the day here. It started off at the Radio Slovakia building where I had the exciting opportunity to sit in the studio and talk about the Bloody Sonnets. It’s the famous upside-triangle building here in Bratislava.

Following this a colleague gifted me quite an interesting book. It is a 1952 edition of the Bloody Sonnets printed from the Soviet times. The introduction I have not yet translated but friends tell me it contains phrases like, if Hviezdoslav would have known about communism, he would have been a communist. POH’s antiwar message was twisted in a way to show supports for the soviets. Which I’ve heard is one reason he has fallen a bit out of favor with people of a certain age here.

This edition contains not only a facsimile of POH’s manuscript, but a special glossary. It contains the words that POH invented, which he was known to do, much to chagrin of many Slovak students. We ended the night with a kind of drinking-game where they would have to guess what some of these Slovak words meant (to native speakers). There were many drinks as many words were foreign to my friends.

This really speaks to the effort of John Minahane’s translation. I wouldn’t say I’m doing vibe-poetry here, but I’m finding a flow in my de-sonnetifying (see POH, I can make up words too :P ) and standing on the shoulders of many others. I have received nothing but interest and encouragement here, so it has been a very inspiring trip so far!

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Here’s the link to the previous sonnet.

The entire collection can be found here as well.