Many films begin with a funeral,

For one has to start somewhere,

And there is no better beginning than a death,

Though that is not what I wanted to say,

But this: It used to seem to me that somewhere

There is a long, long room,

And in it, a long, long table,

And on the table, a new film being unwound to all its length,

And patient people in blue scrubs laboring over every inch,

Scratching it neatly with casing nails;

After that the film is shown to the viewers,

To whom it seems like it’s raining throughout onscreen

And it never stops, even indoors.

Translated by Nika Skandiaka