PASCALE PETIT

Frozen Horses

Twelve frozen corpses – one for each lonely year
sealed under the Altai Desert.

You came with your pickaxe and hacked them out.
You looked in my eyes and saw the graves inside –

twelve sacrificed horses with red saddles
and gold bridles, braided tails and tassels.

Tenderly, you thawed their birch bark beds
and proud manes, their reindeer masks

and antlers for flying to the after-world
from that Iron Age pit.

Unearthing my solitude, you glimpsed
its silver coat and pearl hooves, its pricked ears.

Oana Andreoiu

Pascale Petit
 

Statui ecvestre
 

O duzina de lesuri de gheata- cate unul pentru fiecare an solitar
pecetluit sub desertul Altai.

Ti-ai adus tarnacopul si i-ai eliberat.
M-ai privit in ochi si ai vazut durerea –

doisprezece cai jertfiti purtand sei rosii
si fraie aurii, cozi impletite si ciucuri.

Cu grija, le-ai dezghetat culcusurile din nuiele si scoarta de copac
si mandrele lor coame, si mastile de reni

si coarnele de cerbi fiindca fugeau spre lumea de apoi
de acest abis al Epocii de Fier.

Dezgropandu-mi singuratatea, i-ai zarit
Vesmantul de argint, copitele din perle, urechile ciupite.