Message. Peter Semolič, Translated by Ana Jelnikar & Kelly Lenox Allan

Message
Peter Semolič, Translated by Ana Jelnikar & Kelly Lenox Allan

One day in the future
Earth will be peopled only by peasants.
They will drive around in horse-drawn wagons
and eat grain.
Animals will graze peacefully along white roads
or lie at noonday in the shade of poplars,
chewing their cud.

In the evening, villagers will sit
around a white-haired artist
sinking deep into meditation.
Across unfathomable distances,
he will send into their thoughts pictures,
more lovely than the loveliest poetry.

This is not utopia.
Young men will wear

white clothes, like kimonos.
They will sit in the field
and I, coming out of the nearby barn,
still drowsy from love,
will wave to them.

When they die,

they will die as quietly

as a leaf or a flower.

                       Marezige, 27 May, 1991