Threads: Tartu

Manchester City of Literature project

kaltsukaluuletus
by Murca

aga kuule
hakkame käima
käest kätte
paigast paika
silmad las jooksevad
me oleme paigatud
paigad on peal
õmblus veel peab päris hästi
läheme teisele ringile
uuesti käiku
kahe -euro kasti
põimume puntraks
uuele tahtjale
rõõmuks ja leiuks
ka halvasti istudes
soodsaimaks veaks
kohtume uuesti
kindlasti kindlasti
seda ma tean
tunnen su ära
oma lõimede sees
õigetes kätes jätkuvalt kestes
alguses nalja- ja pärast tõepärast
tuleme välja uuesti kapist
ja unustet kastide seast
ringi ja ringi leidmiste teel
ühe käest teise
kokku ja eemale
kas mõistad
iialgi olnu on alati veel

Photographer: Kaimar Tauri Tamm

a second-hand shop poem
by Murca

but listen
let’s move
from hand to hand
from place to place
let there be ladders
we are patched
there are patches on it
the seam holds quite well
let’s take the second round
use it again
into the two-euro crate
let’s interweave to make a bundle
for a new user
to find and be glad
even when fitting ill
as an advantageous mistake
we meet again
to be sure to be sure
I know that
I shall recognize you
in the midst of my threads
lasting ever in the right hands
first as a joke and a truth in the end
we come out of a new wardrobe
from among forgotten boxes
found again in lasting rounds
from one to another
together and away
do you understand
what has ever been always is again

Translated by Kersti Unt

 

About the author

Murca, a poet, blogger, and photographer from South Estonia, has been writing and performing for over a decade. She explores diverse topics, including queer feminist cattyness and simple everyday joys. Winner of the Tartu Poetry Slam 2023, Murca was also a finalist in the Estonian National Poetry Slam in 2022 and 2023.

 

Photographer: Kaimar Tauri Tamm

The place in the photos is one of the few “old school” second-hand clothes shops still left in Tartu – located in a cellar, most of the clothes piled into boxes as it used to be in the 1990s, the signs outside are also at least 20 years old, the top indicating a cafe and the bottom one the second-hand shop Kaubakelder – the name in direct translation would be “Cellar of Goods”.