“Warsaw, You Bitch!” by Soňa Pokorná

(August 21, 2023)

Talíř, pryskyřice, hrášek, mrkev

you repeat after me in Czech

Pisze, pisze, pisze

I repeat in Polish

and count the hours and the kilometers

from one capital city to the other

I imagine the trip by train

and the trip by bus

Look for an air ticket

want to leave right away

To catch up with you on your way

Leave behind me a bed unmade

And the remains of wine on the radiator

You are nine hours ahead of me

My hair is ten hours longer

I tell myself, when I mow your head with a clipper at 1AM

And pink hair falls on the floor

I will give you a blue t-shirt

I got in Rome

Now it’s with you in Poland

And then strings of lights at your place

I still can’t believe

This stupid Warszawa is so far

Warszawo, ty kurwo!

Warsaw, you bitch!

Varšavo, ty kurvo!

(21. 8. 2023)

Talíř, pryskyřice, hrášek, mrkev

opakuješ po mně

Pisze, pisze, pisze

opakuju já

a počítám hodiny a kilometry

z jednoho hlavního města do druhého

Představuju si cestu vlakem

i cestu autobusem

Hledám si letenku

chci vyrazit hned

Dohnat tě na tvojí cestě

Nechat za sebou rozestlanou postel

A zbytky vína na radiátoru

Jsi o devět hodin napřed

Mám o deset hodin delší vlasy

Říkám si, když ti v jednu v noci strojkem přejíždím hlavu

A na zem padají růžové vlasy

Dám ti modré tričko

které jsem dostala v Římě

Teď je s tebou v Polsku

A pak v bytě se světýlkama

Nemůžu furt uvěřit tomu

že ta pitomá Warszawa je tak daleko

Warszawo, ty kurwo!

Ty kurvo, Varšavo!

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.