Teaching About Diseases
by Miroslav Holub
Puppet diseases are tiny and thread-like, with funereal fur coats and huge ears. And little clawed feet.
There is no fever, just sawdust sifting from the sleeves.
Diarrhea is like intellectual melancholy.
Irregular heartbeats is like deathwatch beetles.
It doesn't look like a disease, just attentive listening, which falls over the eyes like a hood.
When the strings break, that's the end. Just a carved chunk of wood on the bank of the river Lethe. And at the crossing, the little green man signalling: Walk!
Chin up, shouts the puppet-master. We'll play Macbeth. Everyone kicks the bucket in that play anyway. And the remaining puppets line up obediently backstage and pour water out from their little booties.
Poet and immunologist Miroslav Holub (Czech, 1923-1998) developed the nude mouse, a valuable lab animal used in immune system research.
David Young and Dana Habova translated the above prose poem, which appeared in Holub's Intensive Care: Selected and New Poems.
Other poems by Miroslav Holub are at Commonplace blog entries 1 and 2.
by Miroslav Holub
Puppet diseases are tiny and thread-like, with funereal fur coats and huge ears. And little clawed feet.
There is no fever, just sawdust sifting from the sleeves.
Diarrhea is like intellectual melancholy.
Irregular heartbeats is like deathwatch beetles.
It doesn't look like a disease, just attentive listening, which falls over the eyes like a hood.
When the strings break, that's the end. Just a carved chunk of wood on the bank of the river Lethe. And at the crossing, the little green man signalling: Walk!
Chin up, shouts the puppet-master. We'll play Macbeth. Everyone kicks the bucket in that play anyway. And the remaining puppets line up obediently backstage and pour water out from their little booties.
Poet and immunologist Miroslav Holub (Czech, 1923-1998) developed the nude mouse, a valuable lab animal used in immune system research.
David Young and Dana Habova translated the above prose poem, which appeared in Holub's Intensive Care: Selected and New Poems.
Other poems by Miroslav Holub are at Commonplace blog entries 1 and 2.