***
ir vēsas
lūpas
cik tavas
lūpas
ir vēsas
tā tikai pavasara lietus līst
līst un čukst
līst uz kaila gaisa skvēros
līstu uz kailiem zariem svēros
līst uz kailuma
līst uz kailām lūpām skvēros
līst uz kailiem soliem skvēros
līst uz kailuma
līst uz kailām ietvēm skvēros
līst un čukst
ir vēsas
lūpas
cik tavas
tavas lūpas kā zēnam
paveras un lāsīti norij
paveras un lāsīti uzpūš uz manām
manas lūpas kā veidojums
ir vēsas
lūpas
cik tavas
tavas lūpas lāsīti norij
tavas lūpas lāsīti uzpūš uz manām
manas lūpas kā veidojums
ir vēsas
lūpas
cik tavas
lāsīti norij
lāsīti uzpūš uz manām
kā veidojums
ir vēsas
lūpas
cik tavas
lūpas
ir vēsas
čukst un līst
uz kailuma līst
tā tikai pavasara lietus līst
***
Lietus.
Lietus tetovējums.
Ir uz manis slapjās gleznās izsacīts vārds “neej.”
Es pati sevi apvārdoju – “neej.”
Lietus.
Ietu, mūžu ietu.
Bet tu man teici – “nenāc.” Un vēl tu teici – “ne-
skūpsti mani, kad
esmu aizmidzis.”
Lietus kā zinātnieks mani ar skalpeļiem graiza.
Lietus.
Strādā ap vaigiem un ap pieri, un ap abiem
maniem ceļiem.
Skalpeļi.
Lietus.
Lietus nesteidzīgi tetovē, domīgi izzīmē gurnus.
Kur nu?
Kur nu vēl? Lietus vervelē . . .
Lietus apraksta visu manu muguru.
Lai iznāk tīra suga.
Lietus.
Un tagad ar ūdens zīmēm viss izstāstīts, kā
cilvēks pats sev
saka – “neej.”
Lietus tetovējums.
Lietus.
Mēs visi esot iznākuši reiz no ūdens.
Kā radīta, es tagad iznāku no ūdens.
Viscaur ar ūdens zīmēm, kas, tāpat kā
naudas zīmes,
neizzūd,
Es iznāku no ūdens.
Un visa pasaule pavisam klusa un pavisam
klusa, un pavisam
klusa, un tikai
kuģis jūrā
– tū! tū! – skumji
tūto.
no Lūpas. Tu. Lūpas. Es.
Monta Kroma
It is a challenge to translate poetry into a language other than one’s own native language, so I am grateful to my partner in crime, editor Mara Kreslina, for her work. What makes many of Kroma’s poems special is their simple language and and the almost childishly naive attitude they express. However, although they may initially seem simple, Kroma’s poems are in fact quite complex. I hope these qualities of her poetry can be transferred to another language without losing too much, and that the English reader will enjoy her extraordinary poems.
Monta Kroma (1919–1994) was a Latvian modernist poet. In her youth, she participated in the Second World War, after which she became a follower of socialist realism and praised the Red Army and Soviet life in her poems. She graduated from the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow in 1963. Influenced by modernist poetics, she went on to become one of the most radical experimental Latvian poets of the sixties. Lūpas. Tu. Lūpas. Es. (Lips. You. Lips. Me., 1970), arguably her best collection of poems, introduced her as a mature and distinctive modernist voice who celebrates the modern city as well as the body of her lover. A Russian translation of the collection was published in 1973. Seven more poetry collections followed. Kroma’s poems have also been published in English, Swedish, Estonian, Czech, Polish, Ukrainian, Moldavian, and Bulgarian translation.
Karlis Verdins is a Latvian poet, translator, and critic. He currently is a Ph.D. student in comparative literature at Washington University in St. Louis. He has published four collections of poems and two books for children in Latvian. A selection of his translated poems, Come to Me, was published by Arc Publications, UK, in 2015. He has translated into Latvian the poetry of Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, W. B. Yeats, Joseph Brodsky, Charles Simic, and Lev Rubinstein, as well as Latvian poets who wrote in Russian.
