Fairy Tale by Miroslav Holub

[Eva Libre]

He built himself a house,
his foundations,
his stones,
his walls,
his roof overhead,
his chimney and smoke,
his view from the window.

He made himself a garden,
his fence,
his thyme,
his earthworm,
his evening dew.

He cut out his bit of sky above.

And he wrapped the garden in the sky,
and the house in the garden
and packed the lot in a handkerchief
and went off
lone as an arctic fox
through the cold
unending
rain
into the world.

Fairy Tale by Miroslav Holub
(Translated from the Czech by George Theiner)
Painting by Catherine Hyde