The Bloody Sonnets #3

Adaptation of Krvavé sonety.

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

In 2018, John Minahane translated these sonnets into English while maintaining the sonnet form. It is an excellent translation available here. I am doing an adaptation. Following the adaptation, there is a discussion.

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A squadron of Demons soar above
in the flying V of war
whipping the earth with flames —
TWO 
        THREE.

Spewing sulfur in a trail of meteor dust —
Such nightmares haunted our sleep,
but wake up!
wake to wide white eyes and limbs frozen in fear.

O God! Where can I run? 
     Which door to salvation?
In which castle can I hide 
      in which village will I be safe?
Search the world in vain; 
     everywhere is human slaughter:
it follows you in the forests,
     in the fields,
          in the oceans,
and will follow you to the heavens above.

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

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Nad zemou v letku utkvel na krielach
posupný démon, v pravej hlaveň vojny,
z nejž, zmáchav ňou, plam šľahol dvojný, trojný…
a k zemi vzal sa splývať v pramenách,

iskriaci síru, meteorov prach —
Rod ľudský dlho spal už nepokojný:
i strhol sa! — ziv sudbinej vtom trojny
zrel, úžas v očiach, v údoch mrazný strach.

Kam dieť sa, Bože!? (zúpel). K spáse vrátka
kde? rokľa v bralách, zápač pralesa
či morská choboť, loďka čo jak vratká
za útočište?… Ale kryje sa
nadarmo v svete; všade ľudská jatka:
či tvŕď či oceán či nebesá!

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Thinking of flying demons, WWI was the first major conflict with airplanes. Hviezdoslav is writing these at the start of the war so John Minihane reminds us in this translation that his visions of just how bloody the war will be are sadly prophetic.

WWI aviation has a special place in history for Slovakia. While Hviezdoslav is writing these at an age of 65, a 34 year old Milan Štefánik joins the France army as a pilot. Štefánik is a national hero in Slovakia. In brief, he was a politician, a diplomat, an aviator, a French general, and an astronomer. Among other things, he is largely credited as a major influence in the creation of the Czechoslovak state after the end of WWI. In this short paragraph I’m not doing him service of his many accomplishments and importance to Slovakia.

But Slovakia in 1914 doesn’t exist. Slovaks are a minority group in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They were also subject to Magyarization, the assimilation into Hungarian culture. Štefánik I believe sought to take the opportunity that if the empire lost, there could be Czechoslovak independence, which of course he was correct.

How can we celebrate both Štefánik and Hviezdoslav together? There feels like some contradiction here. To be fair, this is not unique to Slovakia. How can we celebrate antiwar poets and generals on the same pedestal?

Let’s look at a war I’m more familiar with. On September 14th, 2001 the U.S. senate passed S J Resolution 23 in a 98-0 vote which was titled:

A joint resolution to authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the recent attacks launched against the United States.

The house later voted 420-1 with the lone “no” vote by Barbara Lee, D-Calif., who said the resolution:

authorizes an open-ended action and significantly reduces Congress's authority in this matter.

Robert Bly is not a fan of counting bodies, but the most cynical way to view this war is that 3,000 innocent American’s died in the towers but then 30,000 will then go on to kill themselves over the next 20 years of war. These numbers don’t compare to Iraqis or Afghans who died.

All of this leaves me with sadness. I’m not offering solutions here but exploring the lens of Hviezdoslav in our modern society. However, something tells me if we have less statues of war heroes and more statues of poets, we will be making steps in the right direction.

Update:

Many thanks to

Benno

for the voice over! It really speaks to the power of doing these translations/adaptations and the inspiration it can have.

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Here is the previous Sonnet.