Mute Desire

Translation from any language – including from Hungarian – to any other language has its challenges. For example, the Hungarian words for “love” and “affection” are expressed by the single Swedish word ”kärlek”.The first section of his poem “Autumn Amble” sounds like this:
„Mute desire penetrates my body”
Mute desire … In this speculative, short poem in Hungarian, we are not quite certain what kind of desire he is speaking about — at least in my interpretation —whether it is of a sensual nature, or it is about his desire to identify himself with the environment.
We exchanged some emails on this topic, and Ove finally solved the puzzle by concluding that the poem is written by a thirty-year-old adult man, therefore is it pretty clear that the most appropriate of the multiple translation possibilities of the word “desire” is the Swedish word „lust”
”Kroppen min
döv
lust
slår
igenom.”
This was one of those poems that convinced Ove Berglund to begin translating Rafi´s volume, because Ove enjoys poetic challenges and plays. It´s a short poem, a sensitive one, and although without rhymes, the discovery of every single word’s meaning was a challenge.

(Translation: Zsuzsanna Tódor, Gabriel Farkas)

(Hungarian text: Over the Rainbow – Facebook)

(Mail to Gergely: gergely90@hotmail.com)