The Mileposts’ Secret
a verse translation of a poem by Jenő Dsida
a poem by Jenő Dsida, translated by Joe Váradi
A dark and lack-lustre tale.
Two wanderers had set out to meet
from afar.
Long past.
Blinded by the pitch black night,
Ear canals as if with lead deafened;
and yet they
tread on.
A tunnel, pearly and cool.
Dank cave walls stick to the trembling palm.
Seeking each
other.
Sinews sway and throb with pain,
Cracked voices, when they muster a scream,
drift away
muffled.
The mileposts are silent.
The secret they have all come to know,
fiendishly
they guard:
Heartache awaits the pilgrims.
Their meandering and aimless paths
long ago
have crossed.
The original, by Jenő Dsida (1907–1938) (Wiki bio), a Hungarian poet and translator who lived a tragically short life overshadowed by World War I. He was active on the Transylvanian cultural scene. This composition has a 7–9–3–2 syllable structure in each verse which I preserved in the translation.
A mérföldkövek titka
Fekete-fakó mese.
Két ember indult egymás felé
messziről.
Régen.
Vaksötét az éjszaka,
füleikben ólom siketül;
azóta
mennek.
Gyöngyös-hideg alagút.
Nedves kőfal tenyérre tapad.
Keresik
egymást.
Inuk roggyant s fájva fáj,
rekedt hangjuk, ha kiáltanak,
elgurul
tompán.
Némák a mérföldkövek.
Titkon, amit mindük észrevett,
kajánul
rejtik:
Csalódnak a vándorok.
Keresztezték egymást balgatag
útjaik
régen.
