Vždy my, vždy jiní
Něco přece muselo zůstat
ze společných probuzení,
sdílené nahoty.
Něco přece muselo zůstat
ze sítí představ o tom,
co přijde. Nic už si nevybavím.
Jak bezohledně to mizí.
A ty hýříš nápady a nadějemi?
A ty hladíš minulost
i budoucnost jako dvě
předoucí kočky
svýma teplýma rukama?
Always us, always the others
Something must have remained
of those shared awakenings,
the shared nakedness.
Something must have remained
of those webs of notions
of what the future holds. Yet, nothing comes to mind.
How ruthlessly it fades away.
And you, are you full of ideas, full of hopes?
And you, are you stroking the past
and the future like two
purring cats
with your warm hands?
(translation by Alexandra Büchler)
Chůze po dunách
I když jsi cítila dojetí
nad prudkým odstínem zeleně,
stromů a trav a borovicového podrostu,
i když tě dojímala nostalgie dýmu toho léta,
pálené trávy a pečených ryb,
i když tě dojímaly děti,
které ještě nic netušíce o restrikcích světa
už teď skákaly
po dlaždicích jen jedné barvy,
přesto pod tím vším dojetím
zůstávalas ve zklamání chladná
jako ledová tůňka v sibiřském lese.
Otáčela ses, aby ses ujistila,
že stopy vytlačené do břehu už jsou smyty,
smyty, nebylas. Nechtělas být,
nechtěla ses už do ničeho otiskovat.
Walking on dunes
Even though you were moved
by the abrupt shade of green
of trees and grass and pine-tree undergrowth
even though you were moved by this summer's nostalgia of smoke
burning grass and grilled fish
even though you were moved by the children
who, as yet innocent of the restrictions of the world
already skipped from one tile of the same colour to another
despite all that emotion
you remained cold underneath in your disappointment
like an icy pond in a Siberian forest.
You kept turning to make sure
that footprints left in the sand had been washed away
washed away, you were not. You didn't want to be
you didn't want to leave your imprint in anything at all.
(Transl. Alexandra Büchler)
The Poetess
Kateřina Rudčenková
Author of poetry, prose and drama
She has written four poetry collections, a collection of stories called Noci, noci (Nights, Nights, 2004) and short novel Amáliina nehybnost (Amalia´s Inertia, 2021). In 2003, she received the German Hubert Burda Award for young Eastern European poets. Her theatre play Niekur was awarded in the Alfred Radok Awards competition in 2006 and was staged in Prague in 2008. In 2007, she won a residency for international playwrights at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Her latest poetry collection Chůze po dunách (The Walking on Dunes, 2013) was awarded The Magnesia Litera Prize in 2014, her short novel Amáliina nehybnost got the Literary Award of a weekly Reflex in 2021. Her texts have been translated to twenty languages, her poetry collections have been published in UK, Austria, Serbia and Greece (Περπατώντας στους Αμμόλοφους, 2020).