<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">Life While-You-Wait</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Life While-You-Wait.</div><div class="">Performance without rehearsal.</div><div class="">Body without alterations.</div><div class="">Head without premeditation.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I know nothing of the role I play.</div><div class="">I only know it’s mine. I can’t exchange it.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I have to guess on the spot</div><div class="">just what this play’s all about.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Ill-prepared for the privilege of living,</div><div class="">I can barely keep up with the pace that the action demands.</div><div class="">I improvise, although I loathe improvisation.</div><div class="">I trip at every step over my own ignorance.</div><div class="">I can’t conceal my hayseed manners.</div><div class="">My instincts are for happy histrionics.</div><div class="">Stage fright makes excuses for me, which humiliate me more.</div><div class="">Extenuating circumstances strike me as cruel.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Words and impulses you can’t take back,</div><div class="">stars you’ll never get counted,</div><div class="">your character like a raincoat you button on the run —</div><div class="">the pitiful results of all this unexpectedness.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If only I could just rehearse one Wednesday in advance,</div><div class="">or repeat a single Thursday that has passed!</div><div class="">But here comes Friday with a script I haven’t seen.</div><div class="">Is it fair, I ask</div><div class="">(my voice a little hoarse,</div><div class="">since I couldn’t even clear my throat offstage).</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">You’d be wrong to think that it’s just a slapdash quiz</div><div class="">taken in makeshift accommodations. Oh no.</div><div class="">I’m standing on the set and I see how strong it is.</div><div class="">The props are surprisingly precise.</div><div class="">The machine rotating the stage has been around even longer.</div><div class="">The farthest galaxies have been turned on.</div><div class="">Oh no, there’s no question, this must be the premiere.</div><div class="">And whatever I do</div><div class="">will become forever what I’ve done.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Wisława Szymborska</div><div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>(translation by <span style="orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><font color="#262626" class="">Clare Cavanaugh and Stanislaw Baranczak)</font></span></div></body></html>