Speeding<\/p>\n
My friends and I wanted to drive fast
\nFaster to floor the pedal and go roaring
\nThrough stop signs and blind corners our eyes half-stuck
\nOn the needle over the limit throttling the night
\nWhile clutching both hands white on the jittery wheel
\nOr making fists in the backseat seeing the blocks
\nAnd blocks of houses streaking by the smear
\nOf porches out the windshield a lane and a half
\nBetween parked cars an emptiness ready to swallow
\nWhatever we had to offer beyond the end
\nOf the engine the grill the chrome-plated star the ram
\nThe streamlined nude thrusting all of us forward
\nInto the dark past streetlights rushing our way
\nTo vault over our heads and show up again
\nWith nothing new to shine for but another
\nCross street another nothing we didn’t want
\nTo be somewhere we didn’t want to be
\nAnywhere even sooner than possible
\nOr somewhere else ahead to be anything
\nDifferent something here not now but there
\nNot then to rocket to break it off
\nBut sooner than we could think we’d see the end
\nOf the street where going on meant losing it all
\nSo we’d slow down then finally almost maybe
\nStopping to talk about how good it had been
\nNot being afraid of flying past between
\nOur sleeping mothers and fathers who couldn’t see us
\nScuffling home now having been somebody
\nWho would get us through the night and the slow morning
\nAnd the slower afternoon the regular walking
\nAround the sitting the nodding the figuring
\nAnd being agreeable dutiful always holding
\nClose the key the ignition midnight the street
\nThe clear lane revving us up to speed
\nThe same old way our faces and feet were aimed
\nOur eyes were headed were meant to go by god.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
I was intrigued to recall a half-forgotten skill, which resulted in the following translation:<\/p>\n
Visu grei\u010diu<\/p>\n
Draugai ir a\u0161 tetro\u0161kome va\u017eiuoti greitai
\npedal\u0105 spausti iki dugno ir riaumoti
\npro pos\u016bkius ir \u017eenklus, akimis prilip\u0119
\nprie rodykl\u0117s u\u017e ribos, pristabdan\u010dios nakt\u012f
\nsugniau\u017e\u0119 iki baltumo pir\u0161tais drebant\u012f vair\u0105
\nkum\u0161\u010dius keleivio s\u0117dyn\u0117j, reg\u0117dami kvadratus
\npro \u0161al\u012f lekian\u010di\u0173 kvartal\u0173 ir verand\u0173
\ndry\u017eius priekiniam stikle ir laisv\u0105 juost\u0105
\npra\u017eiot\u0105 tarp tu\u0161\u010di\u0173 ma\u0161in\u0173, kad praryt\u0173
\ni\u0161tiest\u0105 aukai avin\u0105, \u017evaig\u017ed\u0119, groteli\u0173 nasrus
\naptaki\u0105 nuogyb\u0119, smeigian\u010di\u0105 mus visus pirmyn
\ntamson pro gatv\u0117s \u017eibintus, skuban\u010dius \u012f mus
\nkad stryktel\u0117t\u0173 vir\u0161 galv\u0173 ir v\u0117l i\u0161nirt\u0173
\nbe tikslo lik\u0119, tiktai sankry\u017eai tu\u0161\u010diai
\nap\u0161viesti dar vien\u0105 niek\u0105, kol mes tro\u0161kom
\nneb\u016bt kur nors, kol tro\u0161kome neb\u016bti niekur
\ngrei\u010diau arba toliau nei tai \u012fmanoma
\nkuo nors kitu \u2013 neb\u016bti \u010dia, bet ne dabar
\nir ten, bet ne tuomet, tiktai tolyn nuskrieti
\nir nusimesti visk\u0105 nuo sav\u0119s
\ntik gatv\u0117s pabaiga u\u017eklupdavo per greitai
\nir t\u0119sti b\u016bt\u0173 rei\u0161k\u0119 mums prarasti visk\u0105
\ntod\u0117l suma\u017eindavom greit\u012f ir gal kartais
\nsustodavome pasakyti, kaip mums gera
\nbe baim\u0117s buvo l\u0117kti pro t\u0117vus sumigusius
\nt\u0117vus ir motinas, nepastebin\u010dius m\u016bs\u0173
\n\u017eirgliojan\u010di\u0173 namo, pabuvusi\u0173 kai kuo
\nkad trintume nakties likut\u012f, l\u0117t\u0105 ryt\u0105
\nir dar l\u0117tesn\u0119 popiet\u0119 \u017eingsnius skai\u010diuojant
\npris\u0117dant, palinksint, kalbant, klausant ir i\u0161manant
\nkaip b\u016bti pareigingais, nepamir\u0161tant justi
\nki\u0161en\u0117j rakt\u0105, u\u017evedimo virpes\u012f nakt\u012f
\nbesidriekian\u010di\u0105 juost\u0105, spartinan\u010di\u0105 mus
\nta kryptimi, kuria veidai ir p\u0117dos gimsta
\nkuria akis nukreipti buvom sutverti.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
(Time permitting, I’ll provide the commentary in a separate entry.)","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sorry, this entry is only available in Lietuvi\u0173.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-translation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.vu.lt\/ff\/s.toliautas\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.vu.lt\/ff\/s.toliautas\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.vu.lt\/ff\/s.toliautas\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.vu.lt\/ff\/s.toliautas\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.vu.lt\/ff\/s.toliautas\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.vu.lt\/ff\/s.toliautas\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254,"href":"https:\/\/web.vu.lt\/ff\/s.toliautas\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions\/254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.vu.lt\/ff\/s.toliautas\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.vu.lt\/ff\/s.toliautas\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.vu.lt\/ff\/s.toliautas\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}