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If it comes to pass that I have to shout: “Long live Poland!” —what language will I have to do it in? 1975

September 1982 (in connection with non- standard and negligent building in Lebanon) And it so happened that a soldier in the reserves      accidentally            pulled the latchet of a cannon — and a multi-story building five kilometers away fell heavily      on its occupants, eighty-five casualties. Only a few were rescued from the      ruins: an old…

There was a sword Struck in the stone's mass. Its handle was rusted, the ancient blade Had reddened the stone's grey flank. And you knew You had to seize all this absence with both hands And pull the dark flame from its sheath of night. Some words were carved in the stone's blood, They told…

I am like this dish: you can only accept me, do not try to alter or repair

trans. Hebrew Ruth Whitman At five o'clock I'm going to meet a man at four o'clock a woman rises in me to go to the meeting. At five o'clock I go to meet a man and a woman. The man is new to my hands. Amazes all my memories. The woman is black. And seven…

There must surely be, at the end of a long street Where I walked as a boy, a pool of oil, Heavy rectangle of death beneath the dark sky. Then poetry Separated her waters from all others, No beauty no color restrained her, Her desire was the iron and the night. She nurses A long…

I was lucky enough to overcome fear: I didn't sign the loyalty oath —and yet I'm free. Free? My time of trial only now begins. 12/1981

trans. Russian Richard Lourie In memory it will be like this — the Dnieper River, Trukhanov Island, springtime, a near crimson sunset . . . us running together, arms racing in air. A nameless sadness went through my heart. Why? Weren't we together. Us three. At our games. But then evening fell. Time to leave….

Nettle, O prow of this shore where it is shattered, Frozen erect in the wind, Make me the sign of presence, o my servant In your black, scaly gown. O grey stone If it is true that you have within you blood's color, Let flow out some of the blood coursing through you, Open for…