To Be a Poet

Photo credit: sssh221 from morguefile.com

Life taught me long ago

that music and poetry

are the most beautiful things on earth

that life can give us.

Except for love, of course.

In an old textbook

published by the Imperial Printing House

in the year Vrchlicky's death

I looked up the section on poetics

and poetic ornament.

Then I placed a rose in a tumbler,

lit a candle

and started to write my first verses.

Flare up, flame of words,

and soar,

even if my fingers get burned!

A startling metaphor is worth more

than a ring on one's finger.

But not even Puchmajer's Rhyming Dictionary

was any use to me.

In vain I snatched for ideas

and fiercely closed my eyes

in order to hear that first magic line.

But in the dark, instead of words,

I saw a woman's smile and

wind-blown hair.

That has been my destiny.

And Ive been staggering towards it breathlessly

all my life.

~ Jaroslav Vrchlicky

(Translated by Ewald Osers)