<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 21px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Psalm</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 21px; line-height: normal; font-family: Times; color: rgb(1, 1, 1); min-height: 25px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Oh, the leaky boundaries of man-made states! </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">How many clouds float past them with impunity; </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">how much desert sand sifts from one land to another;</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">how many mountain pebbles tumble onto foreign soil</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">in provocative hops!</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1); min-height: 23px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Need I mention every single bird that flies in the face of frontiers</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">or alights on the roadblock at the border?</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">A humble robin - still, its tail resides abroad</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">while its beak stays home. If that weren’t enough, it won't stop bobbing!</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1); min-height: 23px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Among innumerable insects, I'll single out only the ant </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">between the border guard's left and right boots</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">blithely ignoring the questions "Where from?" and “Where to?"</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1); min-height: 23px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Oh, to register in detail, at a glance, the chaos</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">prevailing on every continent!</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Isn't that a privet on the far bank</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">smuggling its hundred-thousandth leaf across the river?</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">And who but the octopus, with impudent long arms,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">would disrupt the sacred bounds of territorial waters?</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1); min-height: 23px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">And how can we talk of order overall?</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">when the very placement of the stars</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">leaves out doubting just what shines for whom?</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1); min-height: 23px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Not to speak of the fog's reprehensible drifting!</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">And dust blowing all over the steppes</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">as if they hadn't been partitioned!</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">And the voices coasting on obliging airwaves,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">that conspiratorial squeaking, those indecipherable mutters!</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1); min-height: 23px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Only what is human can truly be foreign.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The rest is mixed vegetation, subversive moles, and wind.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1); min-height: 23px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Wislawa Szymborska</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(1, 1, 1);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> (<span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px;" class="">translated from the Polish by Stanisław Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh</span>)</span></div></div></body></html>