esperanta aerio #547 -- mallonga versio de vi ne povas kulpigi min

 

547

vi ne povas kulpigi min

vi ne povas kulpigi nin

ni ne estis tiuj

kiuj rondigis ilin

kiuj fosis la tombojn

tio estis malproksime

kaj tio estis antaŭ longe

ili diros, ke mi sciis

sed kiel tio povas esti?

mi fermis miajn okulojn

mi blokis miajn orelojn

mi neniam diris vorton

 

you can't blame me 

 

you can’t blame us

we weren’t the ones

who rounded them up

who dug the graves

 

that was far away

and that was long ago

 

they’ll say I knew

but how can that be?

 

I’d closed my eyes

I’d blocked my ears

I never said a word

 

yes I know that they’re scarred

and they died like flies

but they can’t have it both ways

can we?

 

they would say that

yes, I know the accusation

 

we only live here now

it was an empty place

and it would be without us

 

I know that they’re ghosts

the ones who are left

what can I do about it now?

 

you tell me what I could have done

it’s too late anyway

 

it must have been someone who looks like me

 

I just happened to be there

I was here all along

I was eking out, I’m poor, I ache

never saw a thing

I was here at home

 

I never pulled the trigger

I never set them alight

 

I had never been there before

I don’t have that kind of knife

 

it was all over in a second

 

they would say that, wouldn’t they?

 

may I plead with you your honour

may the court note my remorse

 

I didn’t bring the walls down on them

I didn’t feed them in the machine

 

I was distracted by a little bird

I had to feed my family

I was walking the dog

 

I was too well known to be allowed

I was nobody

they wouldn’t listen

 

I tried you know

 

it was all over a crust of bread

storm in a teacup this thing

 

I only saw it on the screen

it was all news to me

 

we all have to live somewhere, don’t we?

 

I hadn’t been drinking that night

I never came to fists with a wife

 

who’s without sin should cast first

well they’d say that, wouldn’t they?

far far better thing

 

all of it is relative

this kind of thing

 

my brother – you must understand

they threatened me, my family

 

I never believed the crap they put out

 

I would have taken the poison

but I still held hopes at that stage

 

never voted for the bastards

I didn’t vote at all

 

sometimes we have to swallow our pride

 

I was locked up in a cell at the time

 

if it hadn’t been them

then it would have been me

 

I was the head in the sand

was laid up in bed, a good book

 

of course I see that now

 

I was coming down with something

I hadn’t taken my meds

 

I was stone

but I came to life

 

this is between me and God

it’s my first time in front of you

your worship, yes your majesty

I have a congenital condition

 

I’m this way because what they did to me

 

it was all in a language I never knew then

 

it is true I’ve been watching

but I’m not the one interfered with the child

I deleted all of the images

 

I was really aghast to learn

 

I’d closed my eyes

I’d blocked my ears

I never said a word

 

I was at the piano

 

I was only conducting

 

I sang but out of tune

I had my fingers crossed

 

I was balancing on just the one leg

there’s only so much you can expect of someone

 

I wish I had been in a better position

I ducked when they opened fire

wouldn’t you?

 

I sat down because they told me to

they had a gun to my head

 

put simply, I ran out of time

 

I had thought it was a holiday

I was saying my prayers

 

I was on the phone at the time

 

I still had to finish my poem

somebody else was in charge

 

yes you could say that they were hacked to pieces

you could put it that way

I know they were innocent now

 

that bomb just fell from a clear blue sky

what can you do about that?

 

the very last crimes

are inscribed on my heart

I’m not responsible for them

 

better to live

to tell the tale

 

I was playing with myself in a cupboard

that’s a good place to hide, don’t you think?

 

I was already in the grave when this happened

I have no soul at all

#1129 - another came

 

3.ii.23

1129

4.34

another came

 

we were nameless

no less human

 

I could smell

I could tell

by the song

 

it was a future far in other eyes to see

 

just here

we won’t remember

 

two as if all as if one

 

teeth bared

yet sniff to tail

 

I, trumpeted

you too

 

it is beyond ourselves to meet

each called up spirits

 

amateurs at this, at all

 

track may well have told

 

sky over

and we each clung

to the crust and pile

 

how we of our time and gone

 

perhaps we overdid it ?

 

there were no words back then that far

 

it was a kind of signature we shared

 

as if intending welcome

as if each were a question

still here yet to ask

 

a kind of untouch

 

well down far

in pond in stream

 

caught at breath

 

it may as well have been me

 

‘it was you’

I might have said

the way a tree would fall

esperanta serio #546 - sennomaj

 

546

sennomaj

 

ĉiu nur spiro

flame kun okuloj por

kaprico klinita

ofte enprofundiĝis al grundo

 

estas unua de la horloĝo

obeema al sezonoj

kvankam ni ne povas voki ilin

 

ĉiuj enfalas pro rido

 

ĉiutage pli kie estas mondoj

eterne kaj ĉiam alvenante

 

 

 

 

nameless

 

each just a breath

blaze with eyes for

whim bent

often sunk to soil

 

it’s first of the clock

obedient to seasons

though we cannot call them

 

all fall in with laughter

 

every day more where worlds are

forever and ever arriving

 

 

 

 

#1128 - the animal

 

2.ii.23

1128

4.33

the animal

 

grows time

grows over

 

lovely to meet

to touch

 

the animal

knows without telling

it’s all other with

 

hotly pursued

born as it is

for certain

finely tuned

 

kitted with blessings

 

blameless

singing still

and in the throes of dance

 

as captioned

paws telling forward till

 

goes on

each ghost of was

 

its kingdom come

its day be done

 

this kind of attention

all tooth and claw

 

slips by

such as the animal is

 

in a midst

 

now hidden under

 

the one heart beats

how far in the wings

 

some will not believe who I am

 

the animal chooses light

 

skin of rant

and leafly

 

breath and beast but one

 

are hunting

 

resists an itch to practise stillness, survive

 

the animal all doomward does

 

and will be eaten

insensible to that, one hopes

 

is healing away from the world

 

once bitten

 

just once we gave our all

 

#545 - altvaloraj aferoj

 

545

altvaloraj aferoj

 

ĉeestas al mi

 

ĉiuj jaroj domo ne forbrulos

 

luno degelas

 

kiel panero al ronĝulo venas

ĉi tiu grataĵo trans papero

 

mi memoras kie la aferoj restis

kiel tago estas dividita

 

estas haleluja al la ĥoro

 

estaĵoj ĉiuj koncernataj

kiel ĉi tiu bildo montras

 

mi premas nazon por pentri

 

troviĝas plejparte inter libroj

ŝajnigante ke ĝardeno kreskas

 

 

 

 

precious things

 

are present to me

 

all the years house won’t burn down

 

moon melts

 

like crumb to rodent come

this scratch across paper

 

I remember where things were left

how day’s divided

 

it’s hallelujah to the chorus

 

creatures all concerned

as this picture shows

 

I press nose to paint

 

found mostly among books

pretending a garden grows