VACLAV HAVEL
September Sunday,
A Poem in Prose
It was a day of vermillion
and everything blue
when a friend and I
stumbled upon a man
in the park, alone, face
down to the ground,
his soul trembling as if
to ward off death.
We harnessed him between
our shoulders
to the nearest physician,
a stern gray
contemplative type, who
treated the man
for hours with numerous
injections, soup,
and the last brew of
coffee in the house.
We grew wary as to the
charge he would exact
and how and where to
hustle up the money.
When later in his referral
letter to a clinic,
we found a hundred crown
note for taxi fare—
he mumbled words into
blushing.
A half-year later we read
that the physician
was sentenced to death for
high treason
and activity with
subversive intent. It was then
I thought to myself, what
vagaries of capital
punishment, there were to
comprehend.
Translated from the Czech by James Ragan
Vaclav Havel, playwright, poet, essayist and dissident, served as 1st democratically elected President of Czechoslovakia (1993-2003). His poetry appeared in samizdat editions in the 1960’s. His collection, Antikody, consisting of calligram word designs, is some of his most renowned work. The poem “It is I Who Must Begin,“ published in Kosmos, is anthologized widely, and appears in Teaching with Fire. Over 20 plays, including The Garden Party and Audience, have been staged world-wide.
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