One thought on “Poetry for the resistance

  1. You?
    Thought that sounded familiar. Very good reply to:

    Try to praise the mutilated world.

    Remember June’s long days,
    and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew.
    The nettles that methodically overgrow
    the abandoned homesteads of exiles.
    You must praise the mutilated world.
    You watched the stylish yachts and ships;
    one of them had a long trip ahead of it,
    while salty oblivion awaited others.
    You’ve seen the refugees heading nowhere,
    you’ve heard the executioners sing joyfully.
    You should praise the mutilated world.
    Remember the moments when we were together
    in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
    Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
    You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
    and leaves eddied over the earth’s scars.
    Praise the mutilated world
    and the gray feather a thrush lost,
    and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
    and returns.

    —Adam Zagajewski

    (Translated, from the Polish, by Clare Cavanagh.)

    The New Yorker From the issue of September 24, 2001.

    It got kinda famous after 9/11, though was written before that.

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