Kálmán Kalocsay: Sunsubiro / Sunset

The opening stanza of this poem is a tease. The reader might believe the poem to be taking a particular direction, until realising the description is metaphorical.

The poem was published in the collection Streĉita kordo (Taut String) published in 1931. The translation appeared in Ten Esperanto Poets in English Translation (1991) and later in La Brita Esperantisto (The British Esperantist) in the November/December edition of 1998.

Kálmán Kalocsay
Sunsubiro,
1931

Jam iĝis kupro la tagmeza or’.
Ĉe l’ horizont’ la sun’ adiaŭluma,
Okul’ gigante granda, plorbruluma
Rerigardante pasas drone for.

Kaj kvazaŭ sang’ fluinta ĵus el kor’,
Jen arda ruĝo sur fenestro doma.
Moment’ ... kaj estingiĝas ruĝ’ fantoma,
Kaj jen la dom’, rabite pri l’ trezor’.

Malluma domo. Lumon lamp’ ne ŝutas.
Ĉu l’ mastro dormas, aŭ eterne mutas,
Plu lin ne vekos la maten’ radia?

Mallum’, mallum’, mallum’, tra l’ domo tuta.
Rigardas nokton la fenestro muta
Kun ros-malseka vitro apatia ...

Ĉu mi revidos vin, ho kara mia?

Translation: Katelina Halo
Sunset,
1931

The gold of noon takes on a copper stain.
Low in the sky the sun with farewell rays,
Like a gigantic eye, with backward gaze,
Reddened with tears, sinks drowning in the main.

As if the blood were ebbing from a vein,
The windows of the house all crimson blaze.
A moment – and the ghostly hue decays,
And the house stands, robbed of its golden gain.

A lightless house. No lamp sheds any light.
The master is asleep? or lying stark,
No longer to be roused when night shall wane?

Throughout the house is night, is night, is night.
The silent window looks upon the dark,
All wet with dew its apathetic pane.

O dearest, shall we ever meet again?

_______________________________

From the Clarence Bicknell site, with Esperanto poems by Clarence Bicknell, Karolo Pič, and Lajos Tárkony; with English translations and notes.

See also the translation of "Sunsubiro," "Sundown" by A. Z. Foreman, with recitation of the Esperanto original. I recite Foreman's translation along with the original in my podcast of 5/3/13: The Contributions of Esperanto to World Culture: Parts 1 & 2.