Egle Kirilauskaitė, translated by Lina Lipnevičiūtė-Rakova
Garbėtroškos veidai netilps į dienraščius
vietos nereikšmingumo regionuose
kai žodžiai subyrėję į dailyraščius
apsunks nuo polisemijos ir polifonijos
nesikalbėsime ir nesusikalbėsime
tarp sienų spengiančių ištirps dienoraščiai
Atgal į Apšvietos epochos šviesmečius
manęs neoptimistiškai nenorinčius
į prietemas pas pamirštus eilėraščius
(savęs dialogu dalintus nuorašus)
kad jie pamiršę savo bendraautorius
atgytų ŠMC kiemų kolonose
Ode to postmodernism
The daily papers will run out of space
for faces radiant with such desired glory
in our regions of local insignificance
words spoken from our swollen lips
will be reduced to symbols of calligraphy Drenched in polisemy and poliphony we’ll speak
but in no common tongue
our diaries will be lost to humming and reverberation
Drawn through the light years of Enlightment where we’ll be
undone and optimistically unwelcome
back to the owl-light of forgotten poems
(records of our own selves in dialogue)
so that there we’d be revived in CAC pillars
as monuments to our erased co-authors
***
Horoskopų pranašystės
humaniškumo aspektu
kiek naiviai
pasiduosime
natūralumo ir emocijų tankiu prilygdami ne šio pasaulio atmosferai
kol užpernai tikriausiai ir tarp mūsų įsiterps rimti visuotiniai intelektu ir tris kartus daugiau nei vienu kvalifikaciniu puikybės simboliu ir tarpplanetinio lygmens tuštybės pripažinimu iš tolo pasižymintys ironiški barjerai
kad nepakenktume vieni kitiems ir savo personifikuotai susireikšminusiai postmodernistinei metaforiškai kritikuotinai dviprasmiškai karjerai
vieni kitus parduosime
intelektualu ir išmintinga
Zodiac prophesies
we will give up on our humanism
and our naivety
in terms of our emotional naturalism
our atmospheric density
we will belong to worlds other than this
transplanetary barriers will be raised between us
as ironic degrees of qualification in vanity
from two years ago most probably
they’ll serve us as tokens of recognition
and twice as much of intelligence
we will sell one another cheaply in auctions
just to avoid threats to our personified postmodern
metaphorical open to criticism conceited
ambiguous careers
poor judgement
wisdom
***
Nevisavertiškumui
Tai prasidėjo mumyse
stagnatiškuose
nykiuose
nepaisant
ar žaizda gili
neklausiant
ar nuneš toli
be eufemizmų
laiškuose
nedangstant šypsnių
veiduose
nesiderant
kas pretenduos
į nepagydančius
žaizdos
neieškant baimės
pabaigos
nei gėdos jausmo
iš paskos
nors netikėtai
bet ilgai
visai šalia
vis tiek
likai
perspektyvus
impulsyvus
nenuoseklus
nepatiklus
kurio šešėlyje
blankstu
ir išnykstu
ir išnykstu
Inferiority complex
It begins
with internal sleep
Strongly stagnant and stuck
they are
It depends on
how strangely deep
It depends on
how beastly far
It relies
on what words you write
It relies
on what smile you choose
It depends on
who claims the right
to pretend
that you have
to lose
It goes on
with their sense of fear
on a par
with the ghost of shame
unexpectedly standing near
although you’re not the one
to blame
it appears
Like a formal dream
(in a form of a social game)
it ends up
with a silenced scream
in the light
of another‘s
fame
***
Pustoniai ir tonai
Mūsų tėviškės pilnos laumių,
o senamiestis pilnas lietaus
persmelktų, tirpdomų,
suskeldėjusių
nuomonių.
Nejaugi
mano kraujo ir muzikos beveik broli
tai tik netyčia temperuoti pustoniai ir tonai
tarsi Šalies priklausomybę nuo Tarybų sąjungos paskelbdamas juose
Gegužės devintosios proga
mano priklausomybę nuo Tavęs
kažkas groja
kažkur sutampa virpesiai
(tikriausiai mumyse).
Nesiklausyti
Nebemoku.
Taip Tu mane transponuoji
kad net baugu
Semitones and tones
Once having left our homesteads far
abandoned –
may fairies rule them,
will’o’wisps
and witches
and the dead –
we found ourselves
intentionally
in an old town
where it was raining points of view
instead
How come my unfamiliar yet strongly lacking Brother
of shared collective memory, of music and of blood
unlike the semitones and tones we were
by an unknown composer
accidentally tempered
against the will of helpless non-existent god
right on the ninth of May
were unions and satellite republics
connected by invisible requests
transposed we were
once distantly united
by somebody‘s all-mighty mystic hands
***
My first steps towards literature were undertaken in my early childhood, as the teacher of literature noticed my tendency to invoke unusual literary images and phrases; I discovered the richness of Lithuanian literature once I started reading and writing. I was 10 when my first book was published. Prose was then my literary passion. Now I am known as a poet mostly in my hometown of Utena, the local literary community of which I represent with all my heart and soul in all the poetic festivals and events I have the opportunity to take place in. Summer Literary Seminars ’14 encouraged me to undertake a new direction of literary discoveries as I started translating and even writing poems in English, which is for me, as an English philologist, an endless journey of metaphoric inventions, surprises and interpretations. Last year I published my first collection of poems, which serves as a will-o’-the-wisp for me in the context of the Lithuanian literary world, a part of which I already have the pleasure to call myself.