“For My Bytovka-Fans*” by Soňa Pokorná, translated by Filip Noubel

wanted to make myself a cup of soup

but found that I don’t have a cup

wanted to have a cold lemonade from the fridge

but couldn’t find the opener

dancing in the early morning I wanted to toss my hair

but forgot I don’t have any

walking naked in the heat all over the apartment

looking for an opener, holding my mobile

I wanted to put it in my pocket

but didn’t have one either

but most importantly

most importantly between yesterday and today

I forgot to go to sleep

and then forgot I have a job

after my midday nap I found out

that Kundera died yesterday

and an email came from work

that someone threw a popsicle stick in the toilet

and one shouldn’t do that

and the toilet got clogged

Marie apparently cried at the news

of Kundera’s death

I’m crying mostly because I can’t find the opener

*A bytovka is a small cultural event organized inside one’s home, taking its roots in the word ‘byt’ meaning apartment, that developed when public culture was heavily censored under Communism particularly after the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

PRO MOJE BYTOVKÁŘE

chtěla jsem si udělat polívku do hrníčku

ale zjistila jsem, že nemám hrníček

chtěla jsem si dát studenou limonádu z lednice

ale nenašla otvírák

nad ránem jsem chtěla při tanci pohazovat vlasama

ale zapomněla jsem, že je nemám

a když jsem nahá v tom vedru chodila po bytě

a hledala otvírák s mobilem v ruce

chtěla jsem si ho dát do kapsy

ale tu jsem taky neměla

a hlavně

hlavně jsem ze včerejška na dnešek

zapomněla jít spát

a pak zapomněla, že mám práci

a po poledním spánku se dozvěděla

že včera zemřel Kundera

a z práce přišel mail

že někdo hodil dřívko z nanuku do záchodu

a že to se nemá dělat

a záchod se ucpal

Marie se prý rozplakala nad tou zprávou

o úmrtí Kundery

já spíš pláču, že nemůžu najít ten otvírák

Soňa Pokorná is a Czech photographer and poet who organizes literary happenings at her home, known as bytovka, and in public spaces. In the spring of 2023, she self-published her first collection of texts – mostly poems – and photographs, called Jahody a steaky (Strawberries and Steaks). In the fall of 2023, together with artist Kino Peklo, she released the soundtrack OD KRVE DO KRVE (From Blood to Blood), on the music label a~scent, an offshoot of the queer publishing house Adolescent. She lives in Prague.

Filip Noubel is a journalist and literary translator who inhabits the spaces of Chinese, Czech, English, French and Russian languages. He believes translation is disruption. He has translated Yevgeny Abdullayev, Radka Denemarková, Soňa Pokorná, Huang Chong-kai, Hamid Ismailov, Martin Ryšavý, Tsering Woeser, Guzel Yakhina, Yang Kuisong and Zhang Qianfan, among others. He is also an editor, curator, interviewer, podcaster and translator for Asymptote Journal, Dandu, Global Voices, Graminées, Jentayu, The Vernacularists – and now for Masticadores Taiwan. When he lives in Taipei, he dreams of Kathmandu.