“The Little Box” series by Vasko Popa
THE LITTLE BOX
The little box gets her first teeth
And her little length
Little width little emptiness
And all the rest she has
The little box continues growing
The cupboard that she was inside
Is now inside her
And she grows bigger bigger bigger
Now the room is inside her
And the house and the city and the earth
And the world she was in before
The little box remembers her childhood
And by a great great longing
She becomes a little box again
Now in the little box
You have the whole world in minature
You can easily put it in a pocket
Easily steal it easily lose it
Take care of the little box
.
THE ADMIRERS OF THE LITTLE BOX
Sing little box
Don’t let sleep overtake you
The world’s awake within you
In your four-sided emptiness
We turn distance into nearness
Forgetfulness into memory
Don’t let your nails come loose
For the very first time
We watch sights beyond this world
Through your keyhole
Turn your key in our mouths
Swallow words and numbers
Out of your song
Don’t let your fly lid open
Your bottom drop
Sing little box
.
THE CRAFTSMEN OF THE LITTLE BOX
Don’t open the little box
Heaven’s hate will fall out of her
Don’t close her for any reason
She’ll bite the trouser-leg of eternity
Don’t drop her on the earth
The sun’s eggs will break inside her
Don’t throw her in the air
Earth’s bones will break inside her
Don’t hold her in your hands
The dough of the stars will go sour inside here
What are you are doing for God’s sake
Don’t let her get out of your sight
.
THE OWNERS OF THE LITTLE BOX
Line the inside of the little box
With your precious skin
And make yourself cozy
Just as you would in your home
Make space voyagers inside her
Gather stars make time squirt its milk
And sleep in the clouds
Just don’t go around pretending
You’re more important than her length
And wiser than her width
if you do we’ll sell you for a song
Your box and everything inside her
To the first fleecer the wind
We don’t care about profit
And we don’t keep spoiled goods
So don’t keep saying
it’s we who told you this
From inside the little box
.
THE TENANTS OF THE LITTLE BOX
Throw into the little box
A stone
You’ll take out a bird
Throw in a shadow
You’ll take out the shirt of happiness
Throw in your father’s root
You’ll take out the axle of the universe
The little box works for you
Throw into the little box
A mouse
You’ll take out a quaking hill
Throw in your mother pearl
You’ll take out the chalice of eternal life
Throw in your head
You’ll take out two
The little box works for you
.
THE ENEMIES OF THE LITTLE BOX
Don’t bow down to the little box
Which supposedly contains everything
Your star and all other stars
Empty yourself
In her emptiness
Take two nails out of her
And give them to the ownsers
To eat
Make a hole in her middle
And stick on your clapper
Fill her with blueprints
And the skin of her craftsmen
And trample on her with both feet
Tie her to a cat’s tail
And chase the cat
Don’t bow down to the little box
If you do
You’ll never straighten yourself out again
.
THE VICTIMS OF THE LITTLE BOX
Not even in a dream
Should you have anything to do
With the little box
If you saw her full of stars once
You’d wake up
Without heart or soul in your chest
If you slid your tongue
Into the keyhole once
You’d wake up with a hole in your forehead
If you ground her to bits once
Between your teeth
You’d get up with a square head
If you ever saw her empty
You’d wake up
With a belly full of mice and nails
If in a dream you had anything to do
With the little box
You’d be better off never waking up again
.
THE JUDGES OF THE LITTLE BOX
Why do you stare at the little box
That in her emptiness
Holds the whole world
If the little box holds
The world in her emptiness
The antiworld
Holds the little box in its antihand
Who’ll bite off the antiworld’s antihand
And on that hand
Five hundred antifingers
Do you believe
You’ll bite it off
With your thirty-two teeth
Or are you waiting
For the little box
To fly into your mouth
Is this why you are staring
.
THE BENEFACTORS OF THE LITTLE BOX
We’ll return the little box
Into the arms
Of her inconspicuously honest properties
We won’t do anything
Against her will
We’ll simply take her apart
We’ll crucify her
On her own cross
Pierce her bloated emptiness
And let ooze
All the blue cosmic blood she gathered
We’ll sweep her clean of stars
And anti-stars
And everything else that rots inside her
We won’t make her suffer
We’ll simply put her together again
We’ll give back to the little box
Her pure inconspicuousness
.
THE PRISONERS OF THE LITTLE BOX
Open little box
We kiss your bottom and covr
Keyhole and key
The whole world lies crumpled in you
It resembles everything
Except itself
Not even your clear-sky mother
Would recognize it any more
The rust will eat your key
Our world and us there inside
And finally you too
We kiss your four sides
And four corners
And twenty-four nails
And anything else you have
Open little box
.
LAST NEWS ABOUT THE LITTLE BOX
The little box which contains the world
Fell in love with herself
And conceived
Still another box
The litle box of the little box
Also fell in love with herself
And conceived
Still another little box
And so it went on forever
The world from the little box
Ought to be inside
The last offspring of the little box
But not one of the little boxes
Inside the little box in love with herself
Is the last one
Let’s see you find the world now
.
Vasko Popa, translated by Charles Simic. From Homage to the Lame Wolf: Selected Poems