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 Contents | February 2001 In This Issue (Contributors) Also by Wislawa Szymborska: A Little Bit About the Soul (2000) A Word on Statistics (1997) |
The Atlantic Monthly | February 2001
Two Love Poems by Wislawa Szymborska
OPENNESStranslated by Joanna Trzeciak ..... Here we are, naked lovers, beautiful to each other—and that's enough. The leaves of our eyelids our only covers, we're lying amidst deep night. But they know about us, they know, the four corners, and the chairs nearby us. Discerning shadows also know, and even the table keeps quiet. Our teacups know full well why the tea is getting cold. And old Swift can surely tell that his book's been put on hold. Even the birds are in the know: I saw them writing in the sky brazenly and openly the very name I call you by. The trees? Could you explain to me their unrelenting whispering? The wind may know, you say to me, but how is just a mystery. A moth surprised us through the blinds, its wings in fuzzy flutter. Its silent path—see how it winds in a stubborn holding pattern. Maybe it sees where our eyes fail with an insect's inborn sharpness. I never sensed, nor could you tell that our hearts were aglow in the darkness. COMMEMORATION They made love among the hazel shrubs beneath the suns of dew, entangling in their hair a leafy residue. Heart of the swallow have mercy on them. They knelt down by the lake, combed out the earth and leaves, and fish swam to the water's edge shimmering like stars. Heart of the swallow have mercy on them. The reflections of trees were steaming off the rippling waves. O swallow let this memory forever be engraved. O swallow, thorn of clouds, anchor of the air, Icarus improved, Assumption in formal wear, O swallow, the calligrapher, timeless second hand, early ornithogothic, a crossed eye in the sky, O swallow, pointed silence, mourning full of joy, halo over lovers, have mercy on them. Copyright © 2001 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved. The Atlantic Monthly; February 2001; Two Love Poems - 01.02; Volume 287, No. 2; page 91. |
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