They will take your picture again
In this kitchy sunset
Among monolithic cliffs and mists of smog
For a pretty Japanese postcard.
...
As in the Mayan calendar, the years gone by
Add up to zero
Signifying nothing more than an empty shell.
Our existence
...
Yesterday I saw trout swim about
And spawn between the vocal chords
Words made from letters, weave a net
From consonants and vowels
...
They drink champagne in river valleys
And bubbles rise in river valleys to the top
They turn the other cheek in river valleys
In river valleys they forget it all and stop.
...
I lost my brother
He slid under the ice
I lost my brother
When he was small, he really liked
...
Grass stairs mute step-echoes
For expectant ears each step is
in
au
dib
le
...
City windows the eyes of sadness
Are closing with French blinds
With dying lamps
...
Our leaders love to act like parents
But it's been so long since they've brought home wages
Our economy is like a mother,
Usually stable and responsible,
...
Gabrielė Labanauskaitė was born in Lithuania in 1980. She is a poet, prose writer, playwright and book critic. She has a master degree in theory and history of literature from Vilnius University. She's currently working on a PhD about the narrative construction of stage plays and teaches history and theory of playwriting at the Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy in Vilnius. In 2008 she completed the script writer's course at the New York Gotham Writers Workshop.)
FUJI
They will take your picture again
In this kitchy sunset
Among monolithic cliffs and mists of smog
For a pretty Japanese postcard.
They will take your picture again
And will scan the iris of the eye,
There a lonely old man with burned legs
Looks through the window of his hospital room.
They will take your picture again
Colorful Fuji blocks
Immortalized in USB
Perhaps - first like a gay man,
Sad ly sipp ing mojitos.
They will take your picture again
A New Age story
So much blood on the keyboard
Maybe it's just ironic
That after traveling all night through myspace
You only found a single star
Crumb ling with hardcore
Experimental screams
Of...
a soothing melody
Translation from Lithuanian by Ada Valaitis