Even Those Statues Would Like to Be Warm / Vždyť i ty sochy chtěly by se hřát

Vždyť i ty sochy chtěly by se hřát

Řezavý a bílý sníh
Valeč pokryl zas
a z Doupovských hor,
vyhražených vojákům

a válkám, vane teskný,
jako by cokoliv, co hlasem
chtělo by být na rtech,
ohlušivý, samotářský klid.

A staré sochy z baroka,
nahé v opožděné kráse,
ustrnuly v parku,

než je křísne někdo
vstřícným dotekem a pozvedne
k nim s teplem živý dech.

Even Those Statues Would Like to Be Warm

The cutting, white snow
has covered Valeč again,
and from the Doupov Hills—
set aside for soldiers

and for wars—there blows
a mournful,
as if anything that wished
to become a voice upon the lips

were swallowed by a deafening,
solitary calm.

And the old Baroque statues,
naked in their belated beauty,
have stiffened in the park,

until someone rekindles them
with a sensing touch
and lifts them with a living breath.