greatpoetry | Entries tagged with anna swir

scribbled-mess.livejournal.com

Walking to your place for a love feast
I saw at a street corner
an old beggar woman.

I took her hand,
kissed her delicate cheek,
we talked, she was
the same inside as I am,
from the same kind.
I sensed this instantly
as a dog knows by scent
another dog.

I gave her money,
I could not part from her.
After all, one needs
someone who is close.

And then I no longer knew
why I was walking to your place.

Translated from the Polish by Czesław Miłosz and Leonard Nathan

the-grynne.livejournal.com

LOVE DIVIDES THE LOVERS

You're jealous
of the joy you give me,
because I betray you
with it.
What you give me as a trickle
explodes in me
as a river.

It lifts me up
far beyond your reach,
to paradises
you will never know
and never understand.

We are foreigners, enemies,
singing our love songs
in different languages.
Your body's no more than an instrument
for giving joy
to my body,
which is much the more
chivalrous arrangement.

I won't be submerged in you.
I want you to be submerged
( in me )

the-grynne.livejournal.com

THE DOOR IS OPEN

No, I don't want to tame you,
you'd lose your animal charm.
Your wiliness and nervousness
excite me,
they belong to your exotic breed.

You can't escape me
because the door is always open.
You can't betray me
because I don't demand fidelity.

Give me your hand,
we'll dance
through the laughing darkness.
With sacred bells
on our arms and legs,
the movement of the dance
as supple as ancient Arabic writing,
our hair singing
like a Greek chorus.

Elemental bliss
organised into a mystery play.
Only just domesticated,
like you.

ANNA SWIR

Translated from the Polish by Grazyna Baran and Margaret Marshment

the-grynne.livejournal.com

THE FIRST MADRIGAL

That night of love was pure
as an antique musical instrument
and the air around it.

Rich
as a ceremony of coronation.
It was fleshy as the belly of a woman in labor
and spiritual
as a number.

It was only a moment of life
and it wanted to be a conclusion drawn from life.
By dying
it wanted to comprehend the principle of the world.

That night of love
had ambitions.

ANNA SWIR

Translated from the Polish by Czesław Miłosz and Leonard Nathan

the-grynne.livejournal.com

THE SOUL AND THE BODY ON THE BEACH

The soul on the beach
studies a textbook of philosophy.
The soul asks the body:
Who bound us together?
The body says:
Time to tan the knees.

The soul asks the body:
Is it true
that we do not really exist?
The body says:
I'm tanning my knees.

The soul asks the body:
Where will the dying begin,
in you or in me?
The body laughs,
It tanned its knees.

ANNA SWIR

Translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Leonard Nathan

thistle-verse.livejournal.com

Dithyramb of a Happy Woman
by Anna Swir

Song of excess,
strength, mighty tenderness,
pliant ecstasy.
Magnificence
lovingly dancing.

I quiver as a body in rapture,
I quiver as a wing,
I am an explosion,
I overstep myself,
I am a fountain,
I have its resilience.
Excess,
a thousand excesses,
strength,
song of gushing strength.

There are gifts in me,
flowerings of abundance,
curls of light are sobbing,
a flame is foaming, its lofty ripeness
is ripening.
Oceans of glare,
rosy as the palate
of a big mouth in ecstasy.

I am astonished
up to my nostrils, I snort,
a snorting universe of astonishment
inundates me.
I am gulping excess, I am choking with fullness,
I am impossible as reality.

(translation by Czeslaw Milosz)

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I Eat Poetry

Entries tagged with anna swir

The Same Inside - Anna Swir

Anna Swir, "Love Divides the Lovers"

Anna Swir, "The Door is Open"

Anna Swir, "The First Madrigal"

Anna Swir, "The Soul and the Body on the Beach"

Anna Swir

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