From Tadeusz Różewicz, "Always fragment * Recycling" (1998) reprinted in
Grey Areas (2017)
Truth be told
I don't have time
To finish
This poem
Who on earth takes the time
To write poetry?
In half an hour
I might have to leave
And finish
Here.
[...]
20 years ago
I stood at the top of
The World Trade Center
Watching endless
New York grow beyond
Temptation... Jump
The angels will carry You
In their hands...
Jump... You have a small fantasy grey as
Slate... Jump
You might learn to fly...
On the wings of poetry
And rise towards "humanity's happiness"... Take me
In your arms, jump, America sang.
I only came to my senses
In the basement
Of the Skyscraper
After having eaten a large pink and
White portion of fromage
-- like shaving foam --
I ate a sandwich
-- of cardboard and batt --
And flushed it down with dishwater coffee
-- tasting like tea --
And smiled, sweetly,
To Kaźmierz
And sourly to myself.
[...]
"Tadeusz! Look up, goddammit!"
I closed my eyes
I dreamed of itself behind me,
Unbelievably beautiful Manhattan,
With a small church in the centre
-- St. Patrick's Cathedral --
Like a bird's child in a nest
Of scrapers and skies
P. S.
Not much time
Passed before the world again
Turned wide (this rhyme presses like
Gall)
Come on, finish it,
The poem asks...
So 17 years have passed
And some "fundamentalist"
Taken into America's bosom
Exercised his "right to freedom
And happiness" by blowing up
The World Trade Center.
Perhaps he didn't like the coffee,
Thinking (quietly) that he
In the name of a just god
Would blow this
Skyscraper
To heaven along
With thousands of
People.
He is (surely) of
"Deep faith"
And not sceptical,
Some rational atheist.
Here I notice that
Excessive eagerness is about to make me
Destroy the delicate fabric of poetry
And the construction of this poem,
So I finish here and make a full stop.
(Quandoque bonus...)
December 1975 -- July 1995
Translated by Torgeir Fjeld, 7 Feb, 2021
Yrs,
Torgeir Fjeld
On Sat, 6 Feb 2021, 21:48 david ritchie, <profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I don’t have anything to say on the subject, but I’d like you to know I’m
reading your posts with interest.
David
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