Kinga Tóth
trans. by Timea Balogh
Corn Songs
song ten
come with us to the secret meadow the most beautiful
meadow on the clearing next to the forest next to the deer
only others can see this if you’re sitting inside
this lake on the meadow on the ground
if the smoke gets in your nostrils we will not get back
until two the clock does not work
only the puck with the white edges will be in the lake
the deer the rabbits the squirrels drink circles
chew plastic bags
if I’m hoarse outside I can imagine it
I can imagine it all
song eleven
the brightly-colored pedal boat coasts into the lake
with a life jacket on the side of it next to the small houses
the builders play funny games with wood piles they protect themselves
with boards with mosquito nets against the plastic crocodiles
the pedals pull the passengers to the middle of the lake
they play harmonica in the sand on the beach
and look for tongues to speak with
Kinga Tóth authored the poetry collections PARTY, All Machine, Village 0-24, Wirbauen eine Stadt, and the visual art catalogue Textbilder. Her novel, The Moonlight Faces, won the Hazai Attila Award and the Best Novel Prize in Hungary. These poems are from her collection-in-progress, Corn Songs. Her website is tothkinga.blogspot.de.
Timea Balogh, née Sipos, earned an MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her translations appear in The Offing, The Short Story Project, Two Lines, and elsewhere. Her debut story was nominated by Juked for a PEN/ Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Tweet her @timearozalia.