Trees

 
Learn. The winter trees.
Hoarfrosted crown to root.
Immovable curtains.
 
And learn too of the zone
where a crystal steams
and trees merge into mists,
as the body in recollection of it.
 
And behind the trees, the river
mute wings of the wild duck
the whiteblind blue night
of hooded objects standing:
it is here we must learn the trees’
inexpressible deeds.

Trees by Ágnes Nemes Nagy, from Between , Selected Poems of Ágnes Nemes Nagy, translated by Hugh Maxton, Corvina Press , Budapest and Dedalus Press , Dublin. 1988.