Brano Hochel

Brano Hochel (1951). Since 1975 he has worked at the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Bratislava, with breaks (Moscow State University, 1986, University of Pittsburgh, 1994-95). In 2002 - 2006 he was Vice-Mayor of Bratislava. He worked as editor in Proti prúdu, Revue svetovej literatúry, Kultúrny život, SME Plus, since 2001 he has been editor-in-chief of the Revue aktuálnej kultúry RAK. He is the author of the following books of poetry: Úryvky z kríža (Excerpts from the Cross), 1970; Predvčerom sme sa krásne milovali (Love-making the Other Day was Beautiful), 1987; Vo štvrtok a iné predbežne (On Thursday and Others Preliminarily), 1992; and Poems - Gedichte - Poesie - Wiersze - Versek (1994), short stories Gombíky (The Buttons), 1997; drama, radio play and TV screen plays for children. He has also published professional publications: Preklad ako komunikácia, 1990 (Translation as Communication) and Slovník slovenského slangu (Dictionary of Slovak Slang), 1993. He translates from English.


Mr Perplex And His Pupils

II

look, said Mr Perplex
to his pupils and other customers
at a china restaurant where they
munched specialties of all sorts 

at a round table in a corner
the chinese personnel
enjoyed their dry raw rice

Mr Perplex and his pupils entered into a book:
The hosts know what’s best for you to eat

III

when a census was announced of people, houses, and flats,
Mr Perplex pleaded pupils to
volunteer for the officers of the process
our homework is still pending as we suffered
a power outage, our grandma was poisoned, our keys
slipped into the drain etc. were their elaborate excuses
so, as a result, it took all sorts of pain
for them to track down some reasonable outcome. 

all newspapers maintained all of the process was all all right
numerous random witnesses, however, spotted
Mr Perplex counting and his desperate
pupils shedding tears into their bowls 

when a very last dispute over the methodology
of counting people, houses, and flats, finally waned,
Mr Perplex unrolled the scrolls
numbers of houses and flats markedly exceeded
the number of homes 

The pupils ruminated for hours, days, and weeks, and only then did Mr
Perplex and his pupils take a note:
There is a lesser number of homes as every human seems to be able to build no
more than a single one. If they cannot sustain it, they live in a flat. 

English translation: Martin Solotruk