Flood Poem by Roland Orcsik

I.

A documentary about Csontváry:
beginning-of-century photos, reproductions,
developing Budapest, frayed fallows.

On a black-and-white snapshot Szeged
sank underwater, the city had been thrifty,
deemed the regulation of Tisza expensive.

The river's fury swallowed
up the countless smeared stories.
The surviving rest is yellow-stained.

II.

The canvas is filling up with new music.
Melodious blue gurgling,
the cattle are gathering at the watering hole,

colors flood the screen,
vast boulders from Tátra,
slow strings in the shade of the Cedar,

into a red spring sinks the white one,
the parched air drinks up
the green, dissolving with the horns.

The waterfall in Jajce wails:
the rest of the canvas is yellow-stained,
just like the sky above Mostar.

Translated by Zoltán Lengyel