Mothers' Day, poema de Elo Vidding, poeta estonia

Elo Vidding (foto Wikipedia)

Mothers' Day

On Mothers' Day every child should sing

and give his mother flowers, and prime ministers think

that every mother wants to be honoured

and all prime ministers dream

that all women who aren't mothers

will feel simply feel rotten

more rotten than ever before,

so the government gives mothers

special advantages

and passes a law on parental salaries

all teachers believe that every mother can be bothered

on Sunday morning at ten o'clock

to come to the Mothers' Day Concert

and every mother regards herself as part of

the social group ’mothers’

and every mother is childishly insulted if no one sings

 for her

or people get annoyed at her children’s brutal selfishness

more than about the beautiful two-facedness of society

so that you should be nervous on stage in front of all

thoe mothers

in front of page-boy styled mothers and mothers in hats

and mothers with metallic finish cars

and mothers with nylon handbags and mothers with

carrier bags

and mothers with Saint Laurent shadowed eyes

enterprising hawk-eyed single mothers and ostrich

housewives

and the few clever fathers who stand at the

back of the hall

because they're not allowed to sit they are men and today

the mothers are sitting

because it's so nice so nice to sing to complete strangers

do you know your mother's heart

on Sunday morning ten o'clock in the stuffy hall to the

gurgle of gastric juices

because if we don't sing to the mothers

they will all die off

not from a lack of sleep or hunger for sex

but because we ruined Mothers' Day for them

and we will have a bad conscience

so bad that we can never return to society

the prime minister thinks

that every mother has a heart of gold

on a chain around her neck

 that every mother has read child psychology

that every mother is well acquainted with gender release

and with the child's father

that every mother lives in a centrally-heated flat with hot

and cold running water

that every mother is a Hansa Bank customer and dreams

of obtaining a loan

that every mother wears tracksuit bottoms at home and is

slimming

that every mother is happy and every mother ready for

motherhood

that postnatal depression is a mere trifle compared with

the greater joy

which will come in twenty years' time when life has

become six times more expensive

that every mother is healthy and strong and can manage

life without moonshine

that every mother has a stable nervous system and

avoids injections

that every mother knows at least in the sixth month

that she is pregnant

that every mother is older than eighteen years of age

that every mother loves little children

that every mother is a good boss to her children

that every mother sticks her children on the front page of

Women's Own

at the first opportunity

that every mother takes her children to some children's

activity

don't let them fucking-well play with those young

criminals in that sand-pit

that every mother gives her children vegetables and

boiled beef for lunch

that every mother has got on damned well in life

and has not been warped by police thrillers on TV

that every mother has a retired grandfather and a

grandmother who dandles the children on her knee

so that she doesn't ever have to put it in the crèche as

people usually do

that every mother is in fact a human being and every

mother is a woman

and that every mother dreams of nothing else but

becoming a mother

that every mother takes part in the family forum on the

net

that every mother has something to give her child

that every woman regards her offspring as her primary

duty

that every woman lives for others and never for herself

that every woman wants to serve her country and her

people

that every woman wants to get up early in the morning

that every woman can be bothered to wake up six times

a night

that every woman has a bad conscience if she can't

produce enough milk

so necessary for the immune system take a look at the

scientific research

which divides children up into breast-fed ones and sick

ones

that every woman conceives naturally and that every

woman is fertile

that every woman wants to give birth in a maternity

home

that every woman manages to combine a career with

motherhood

that every childless woman regards her life as empty and

incomplete

that every woman rushes headlong to buy a pregnancy

test

when the right time comes when the biological clock

rings relentlessly

she grabs the first best reasonably suitable father

that every woman only wants to talk about her

pregnancy

that every woman afterwards wants to teach the non-

pregnant

that birth is a special experience not especially

unbearable pain

that the three months after birth need to be got used to

that pregnancy isn't an illness, just simply a natural state

of affairs

that hormonal changes don't affect our psyche that much

that hormonal changes are sometimes even enjoyable

that every woman likes her primary biological function

that every woman's behavior is governed by her

primary biological function

that every woman's existence is governed by her primary

biological function

that every woman thinks of this as a trifling problem

if anyone makes a big thing about motherhood

which is so natural

then every problem is, believe you me,

easy to solve by the government and the mothers

themselves

that every supermarket wants

that children honor their mothers

make your mother happy and give her something cheap

something which costs less than 500 crowns

because your mother deserves it

because of you dear child don't buy wrinkle cream

but load some yoghurt, cornflakes or muesli

into your shopping basket

go and ask her for those 300 crowns gift money

and buy her a nice rejuvenation emulsion

every mother enjoys the bargain prices around Mothers'

Day

and doesn't pay the January rent because of Christmas

presents

and every child wants to say thank you

for its existence

a childishly guilty thank-you

and wants say

to the prime minister

thank you that I'm alive

every mother wants to be sublime and noble

and feel that a child's life depends on her

every mother wants to be selfless and not to belly-ache

every mother manages to cope

whenever she wants don't forget whenever she wants

and every mother believes that those who aren't mothers

should be obliged to feel bad about it

because they have nobody simply nobody who in their

old age

will treat them as well as they do now

in a word to pay them back for their trouble

you should always live with recompense in mind

you should always expect recompense

thanks to mothers

as soon as every woman reads women's literature and

dreamy prose

as a time of peace arrives dear people

as no one has claims any more

as we are many and we have plenty of serotonin and

endorphine

as we all get under one another's feet and jump for joy

thanking god

as no one gets irritated any longer or drive people to

despair

then our dear mothers will have fulfilled their mission

and even women writers will get their just rewards

when they have children and when they are nicely

buried

when their creative endeavours are good beautiful and

safe

and when they agree nicely with their readers

or when they suddenly become children's writers

when they are finally steered onto the right way

when they are translated into several languages

and invited to attend seminars

in whose breaks you can eat a sausage roll

and drink coffee from a plastic cup

even the prime-minister knows

that no woman any longer reads poetry

especially that which is inhuman and subversive to

society

and for which no prizes or medals are given

and especially if it is written by quasi-women

and especially when they do it well

yet no one of us can admit it, let's be honest

better write or do something useful

what, let them think for themselves, come on, time to

guess yourself

On Mothers' Day every child should sing

and give their mothers flowers and prime-ministers

know

that mothers are the only ones who listen to their

speeches

because they are mothers

Mother's Day, poema de Elo Vidding (Estonia, 20 de marzo de 1974), fue publicado en el número 3 (17) mayo-junio 2010, de la revista Horizonte Literario Contemporáneo, en inglés y rumano. Mi buen amigo, Daniel Dragomirescu, Redactor Jefe de la revista, me autorizó publicarlo en esta Aldea. Disculpen, amigos, que por el momento no esté en condiciones de presentar la traducción al español, pero no quise dejar pasar la oportunidad de compartirlo, pues encierra verdades universales, expresadas con una fina ironía que ojalá hiciera pensar a los primeros ministros y gobernantes en general, en el papel que desempeñan las madres y las mujeres en general, antes de soltar discursos que nadie quiere escuchar.