Brief reflection on a fence- by Miroslav Holub

Brief reflection on a fence- by Miroslav Holub
[ translated from Czech to English by Ewald Osers]

A fence

begins nowhere
ends nowhere
and

separates the place where it is
from the place where it isn’t.

unfortunately, however,
every fence is relatively permeable, some for
small

others for large things so that
the fence actually
does not separate but indicates
that something should be separated.
And the trespassers will be prosecuted.
In this sense
the fence can
perfectly well be replaced with an angry word,

or sometimes even
a kind word, but that as a rule
does not occur to anyone.

In this sense therefore
a truly perfect fence
is one
that separates nothing from nothing,
a place where there is nothing, from
a place where there’s also nothing.

That is the absolute fence, similar to the poet’s word