Photograph by Laura Veres
To Endure Until The Third Day
He told them to leave the mountain
when the time came,
to run around the lake three times,
praying inside like he had taught them;
to collect and pile
all the lost hope,
all the branches broken down
by the latest storm, brilliant with buds,
but they didn't know why
he – seemingly – abandoned them.
That day it would've been too early
for them to realise
he had given himself to them.
They couldn't blame themselves for this.
He'd left without switching the lights off,
so that they could find their way home
when they gave up searching for him.
Translated by Agnes Marton
Zita Izso is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including the Zsigmond Móricz Literary Grant, the Mihály Babits Literary Translator Grant and the NKA Arts Grant. She published her third poetry collection in 2018 under the title Éjszakai földet érés (Nighttime Landing).
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