The Festival
by Miroslav Holub
At the festival of patients
with all the known diseases
the crutch choir sings
for the pacemakers.
The double astigmatic landscape
gratefully swallows the murmurs
of the mitral valve.
In the candlelit college hall
corticosteroids anoint psoriases.
In the pavillion of intensive care
fish with fish skin disease
are given artificial respiration.
But in fact
we bubble with joy
like fish in a fish tank,
that all this torment
at least has a name.
Translated by David Young and Dana Hobova.
by Miroslav Holub
At the festival of patients
with all the known diseases
the crutch choir sings
for the pacemakers.
The double astigmatic landscape
gratefully swallows the murmurs
of the mitral valve.
In the candlelit college hall
corticosteroids anoint psoriases.
In the pavillion of intensive care
fish with fish skin disease
are given artificial respiration.
But in fact
we bubble with joy
like fish in a fish tank,
that all this torment
at least has a name.
Translated by David Young and Dana Hobova.
