Miroslav Holub
ENCYCLOPÆDIA : SUM OF ALL KNOWLEDGE
new version by Anthony Weir

A huge brown and white bull
dangling from chains
by a hind leg torn from its socket
its prolapsed belly
contracted in spasm

is dragged with its twitching mouth along the ground
and slowly butchered
over a leaky drain.

The huge, protruding eye
is turning inward

where someone's fingernail
fishes around for ever
to find out the nature

of Beta-glucuronidase*.

_____________

from the collection 'ALTHOUGH' (1969)

 

* TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: also known as Beta-G1