Anna Hajnal
Fear
I am afraid I may be Ilia
the wild duck mired in the oil.
What if, instead, I'm Algernon
the white mouse in the maze,
or Pompilius, the dog in the laboratory
with the cancer graft under his skin?
I am afraid. What if the bull calf
with the new moon marking his forehead
–the one chosen for slaughter–
is really who I am? I have a fear
that maybe I am Bonnie
the chimpanzee who died
in the solitude of the spacecraft . . .
But no, I know I'm Anna, and afraid,
for knowing this, I know I live
until the debt I owe for this is paid.
Hungarian; trans. Daniel Hoffman
Anna Hajnal, Hungarian, trans. Daniel Hoffman,
Modern Hugarian Poetry, Miklos Vajda, ed.,
Columbia University Press, 1977.