Brian Culhane

ON NOT TRANSLATING POLISH POETS

Were it not
For not knowing
Their tongue

Or even how
To pronounce
Certain letters

I would be
The first to translate
Them

I would sit
Down tonight
And channel

My inner Herbert
Szymborska
Zagajewski

Staring at paper
Ballpoint poised
Ready for

That first word
Imperfect perhaps
But honest and clear

Hewing to
Syllables so coldly astral
Nothing on earth

Approaches their pitch
On the other
Hand

Ignorance might not
After all prove
An impediment

As the not-
Knowing allows for
Peculiar intensity

The way a child
Wordlessly
Plinking a melody

Muses her way
Forward
One slightly clenched

Fist on lap
While the left
Lands on a single minor

Chord so
Heartbreaking
In the music room

That even her
Toddling sister looks up
Astonished

Author: Brian Culhane

Brian Culhane’s poetry has appeared widely in such journals as Blackbird, The Cincinnati Review, The Hudson Review, and The Paris Review. Awarded the Poetry Foundation’s Emily Dickinson Prize, his first book, The King’s Question, was published by Graywolf Press. He’s received fellowships from Washington State’s Artist Trust, MacDowell, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. His second collection, Remembering Lethe, was published by Able Muse Press in 2021 and reviewed by Chelsea Wagenaar in Issue 127  of Plume.

Plume: Issue #137 January 2023