HILARY ELFICK

Where the others are

 

How do they read each other’s eyes,
their bodies’ semaphore?
What does moody mean?

How can you be too sensitive?
How long are you staying?
Was that rude?

I watch them spin high speed headlights
and never collide. Their banter’s light,
they weave and tuck, quip,

truncate each others’ patter
nothing weighed, all play.
How do they judge

whose turn it is to wheel away?
How does that tightrope work where
they know without thinking the right

distance to keep? How do they join
that easy song, picking up each other’s air
syncopating it in such a way that

I am still outside? How does it work,
how does it play, that country
where the others are?

Roxana-Monica Mîndrican

Hilary Elfick
 

Unde sunt ceilalti

Cum isi citesc in priviri,
si in semaforul trupului ?
ce inseamna morocanos ?

Cum poti fi prea sensibil ?
Cat stai ?
A fost nepoliticos ?

Ii privesc rotind faruri rapide,
dar fara a se ciocni. Flecaresc plini de viata,
se unduiesc si se pliaza, glumesc,

se intrerup unul pe altul,*
nimic nu e cumpanit, totul e o joaca.*
Cum stiu ei

al cui rand este sa se roteasca ?
cum se merge pe sarma acolo
unde ei stiu fara sa stea pe ganduri

ce distanta sa pastreze ? cum intoneaza ei
cantecelul ala, unindu-si
glasurile in asa fel incat

eu raman tot pe dinafara?cum se face,
care sunt regulile jocului, in tara
unde locuiesc ceilalti?

*“truncate each other’s patter”- to “truncate” means to make something shorter and “patter” refers to a fast continous talk, or to the noice made by the footsteps( which is unlikely to be the appropriate meaning in the given context). Therefore the expression could mean “to interrupt each others’ talk”-“se intrerup unul pe altul”.

*I tried to keep this meaning association between “weighed” (to evaluate, to reason, to balance) and “play” (which hints at the lack of balance and reason)- “cumpanit” (balanced) vs. ”joaca”(play) translates this opposition and preserves the intention of the author.