Overflowing Cup

Translation of a poem from the collection "The flood may come with our passing" by F. Gellner.

I hold in my palm a cup.
'Tis frothy, overflowing.
I hold in my palm a cup.
Which in anticipation is growing.

Which wonders
if its wine will be spilled for waste,
on flowers alien of distant worlds
its meaning will at last be graced.

Which wonders, if will the blossoms bow
under the earth's weight.
Which wonders, if other worlds
will shine with its odours great.

I hold in my palm a cup,
which awaits the lips of man
in anticipation growing.
I hold in my palm a cup:
my heart, overflowing.

Author's Note

uh

Reviews

[Hailey]

i love this!! amazing diction use :)

[KWP]

I used to be a fan of rhyming poems - not anymore though - for me they seem limiting - I like to tap into the free flowing consciousness - see what rises in a bubble and pops, if only for a moment, into my reality.

Tell me though, this is a translation - how do you manage the rhymes?

[M. Lumiére]

Ah, it's no problem when you control both languages fluently, I'd say. Gellner writes in a style that is rather confusing at times, so there can be some trouble with that, but generally, the core is to create the rhymes first, or at least have them in your head.

[KWP]

so then, is it a true translation?

[KWP]

a true representation of what the poet was wanting to achieve?

[M. Lumiére]

I like to think so. You'd have to ask another czech, or a slovak perhaps. I'd say it is quite accurate though.