Palm leaves

ssuunnddeeww.deviantart

tačno u ponoć 

1973-74.
Los Anđeles
počela je da pada kiša
po palminom lišću pred mojim prozorom
oglasile su se sirene i petarde
i zagrmelo je.

legao sam u devet uveče,
pogasio svetla
navukao pokrivač –
njihovo veselje, njihova sreća,
njihovi vrisci, njihove papirne kape,
njihovi automobili, njihove žene,
njihovi diletanti u opijanju...

novogodišnja noć me uvek zastrašuje

život ne zna ništa o godinama.

sad su trube umukle i
petarde i grmljavina...
sve je trajalo samo pet minuta...
čujem samo kišu
po palminom lišću,
i mislim,
nikad neću razumeti ljude,
ali sam ipak
preživeo.

Čarls Bukovski, Palmino lišće


_______________________________



at exactly twelve o’clock midnight
1973-74
Los Angeles
it began to rain on the
palm leaves outside my window
the horns and firecrackers
went off
and it thundered.

I’d gone to bed at 9 p.m.
turned out the lights
pulled up the covers –
their gaiety, their happiness
their screams, their paper hats,
their automobiles, their women,
their amateur drunks…

New Year’s Eve always terrifies
me

life knows nothing of years.

now the horns have stopped and
the firecrackers and the thunder…
it’s all over in five minutes…
all I hear is the rain
on the palm leaves,
and I think,
I will never understand men,
but I have lived
it through.

Charles Bukowski, Palm leaves