The Little Box by Vasko Popa

The Little Box

 

The little box gets her first teeth

And her little length

Little width little emptiness

And all the rest she has

 

The little box continues growing

The cupboard that she was inside

Is now inside her

 

And she grows bigger bigger bigger

Now the room is inside her

And the house and the city and the earth

And the world she was in before

 

The little box remembers her childhood

And by a great longing

She becomes a little box again

 

Now in the little box

You have the whole world in miniature

You can easily put in a pocket

Easily steal it lose it

 

Take care of the little box

 

(translated by Charles Simić)