“Agca” by Tomaž Šalamun | Blackbird v14n1

Slovenščina
back TOMAŽ ŠALAMUN
translation from the Slovene by Brian Henry

Agca
from Levu sem zribal glavo do pol gobca, potem sem nehal (Cankarjeva založba, 2009)

Farrar, Straus. I opened a henhouse.
Bojan took the network to new heights
then cracked his skull

on the rocks. Farrar, Straus. A fence around
handsome men. The elbows are greasy,
but these are the elbows of stalactites.

A silver curse floats, we are in a winch.
Fig leaves are an overgrown bee.
Do you get them from bronze? Are you tossing them

into the sea? Wilderness grooms the fat
of boats. Every spring, every spring,
every spring. How were you bound

so that you did not rip off the propeller?
A secret of the fifth Fatima. Again
the bowing of the Pope’s head over a Turk.

I wonder who sent you,
tell me something else. A hoof
shakes three numbers, releases two?

Mehmet Ali Agca is a Turkish assassin who tried to kill Pope John Paul II.