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June Poems: 92 / 500

Try To Praise The Mutilated World

Rating: 5.0

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 grey feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.


Translated by Renata Gorczynski

Anonymous submission.

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COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Clare Cavanagh 01 April 2008

I am the translator of this poem, and not Renata Gorczynski, as the original publication in The New Yorker and later in Zagajewski's collection 'Without End, ' will confirm. I'd appreciate your chaning the attribution here. Thank you.

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Adam Zagajewski