I Global Podd 26: Från Minsk till Macao – konsten att berätta en historia, berättar Julia Cimafiejeva om konstens roll i Belarus och tankarna bakom dikten ”My European Poem” som vi tidigare publicerat. I avsnittet läser hon också dikten ”The Stone of Fear” som du kan läsa här.
The Stone of Fear”. A Poem by Julia Cimafiejeva
I’m scared.
I’m home.
I have received a trust fund
of fear –
a family heirloom,
passed
generation to generation,
our round family stone,
stolen once
from the landlord’s field.
This stone has no mouth,
it can neither scream
nor talk.
This stone has no memory,
it’s forever an egg,
a slow-growing embryo.
One by one, we feed this stone
through a long umbilical straw:
great grandmothers and great grandfathers,
grandfathers and grandmothers,
mother and father,
now that I’m grown –
It’s my turn.
The rules of nursing the stone are simple:
1. Use the stone
to make your heart heavy.
The stone will help you unlearn
how to breathe with a full chest.
2. Let the stone
rise until it’s stuck in your throat
sucking on your words.
The stone will help you unlearn
how to say what needs to be said.
3. Watch the fear emerge
wrapped in the umbilical stone
around your neck, hung
with the umbilical stone on your chest,
your eternal pullback weight.
– How pretty! Is this your grandma’s?
– Yes.
– Take good care of it.
– Always.
Translated from Belarusian by Valzhyna Mort.
Stone of Fear was originally published at LitHub
