Month: April 2018

Birthday – Poem by Wislawa Szymborska
Birthday

So much world all at once – how it rustles and bustles!

Moraines and morays and morasses and mussels,

The flame, the flamingo, the flounder, the feather –

How to line them all up, how to put them together?

All the tickets and crickets and creepers and creeks!

The beeches and leeches alone could take weeks.

Chinchillas, gorillas, and sarsaparillas –

Thanks do much, but all this excess of kindness could kill us.

Where’s the jar for this burgeoning burdock, brooks’ babble,

Rooks’ squabble, snakes’ quiggle, abundance, and trouble?

How to plug up the gold mines and pin down the fox,

How to cope with the linx, bobolinks, strptococs!

Tale dioxide: a lightweight, but mighty in deeds:

What about octopodes, what about centipedes?

I could look into prices, but don’t have the nerve:

These are products I just can’t afford, don’t deserve.

Isn’t sunset a little too much for two eyes

That, who knows, may not open to see the sun rise?

I am just passing through, it’s a five-minute stop.

I won’t catch what is distant: what’s too close, I’ll mix up.

While trying to plumb what the void’s inner sense is,

I’m bound to pass by all these poppies and pansies.

What a loss when you think how much effort was spent

perfecting this petal, this pistil, this scent

for the one-time appearance, which is all they’re allowed,

so aloofly precise and so fragilely proud.

translated from Polish by Stanislaw Baranczak

and Clare Cavanagh

Urodziny

Tyle naraz ?wiata ze wszystkich stron swiata:

moreny, mureny i morza, i zorze,

i ogie?, i ogon, i orze?, i orzech –

jak ja to ustawi?, gdzie ja to po?o???

Te chaszcze i paszcze, i leszcze, i deszcze,

bodziszki, modliszki – gdzie ja to pomieszcz??

Motyle, goryle, beryle i trele –

dzi?kuj?, to chyba o wiele za wiele,

Do dzbanka jakiego tam ?opian i ?opot,

i ?ubin, i pop?och, i przepych, i k?opot?

Gdzie zabra? kolibra, gdzie ukry? to srebro,

co zrobi? na serio z tym ?ubrem i zebr??

Ju? taki dwutlenek rzecz wa?na i droga,

a tu o?miornica i jeszcze stonoga!

Domy?lam si? ceny, cho? cena z gwiazd zdarta –

dziekuj?, doprawdy nie czuj? si? warta.

Nie szkoda to dla mnie zachodu i s?o?ca?

Jak ma si? w to bawi? osoba ?yj?ca?

Na chwil? tu jestem i tylko na chwil?:

co dalsze, przeocz?, a reszt? pomyl?.

Nie zd??? wszystkiego odró?ni? od pró?ni.

Pogubi? te bratki w po?piechu podró?nym.

Ju?c ho?by najmniejszy – szalony wydatek:

fatyga ?odygi i listek, i p?atek

raz jeden w przestrzeni, od nigdy, na o?lep,

wzgardliwie dok?adny i kruchy wynio?le.

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