Attila Jozsef | April 11, 1905 – December 3, 1937

I’ll Be a Gardener

(Kertesz leszek) by Attila Jozsef, translated from the Hungarian by Paul Sohar

I’ll be a gardener of trees,
with the rising sun I’ll rise
and see to it that none of my
pregnant flowers ever dies.

Pregnant loving flowers will
flock around me in a sea,
and I don’t care their kiss can sting
if they’re flowers true to me.

I’ll drink milk and smoke a pipe,
my good name I will staunchly guard,
no harm can come to me if I
plant myself too in the yard.

There’s a great need for this work
in the east and in the west –
when this world dies it will need
flowers on its grave to rest.

From Big Hammer No. 10, 2007. Iniquity Press / Vendetta Books. This issue is available by clicking here…