<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 dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Life While-You-Wait <br class=""><br class="">Life While-You-Wait.<br class="">Performance without rehearsal.<br class="">Body without alterations.<br class="">Head without premeditation.<br class=""><br class="">I know nothing of the role I play.<br class="">I only know it’s mine. I can’t exchange it.<br class=""><br class="">I have to guess on the spot<br class="">just what this play’s all about.<br class=""><br class="">Ill-prepared for the privilege of living,<br class="">I can barely keep up with the pace that the action demands.<br class="">I improvise, although I loathe improvisation.<br class="">I trip at every step over my own ignorance.<br class="">I can’t conceal my hayseed manners.<br class="">My instincts are for happy histrionics.<br class="">Stage fright makes excuses for me, which humiliate me more.<br class="">Extenuating circumstances strike me as cruel.<br class=""><br class="">Words and impulses you can’t take back,<br class="">stars you’ll never get counted,<br class="">your character like a raincoat you button on the run —<br class="">the pitiful results of all this unexpectedness.<br class=""><br class="">If only I could just rehearse one Wednesday in advance,<br class="">or repeat a single Thursday that has passed!<br class="">But here comes Friday with a script I haven’t seen.<br class="">Is it fair, I ask<br class="">(my voice a little hoarse,<br class="">since I couldn’t even clear my throat offstage).<br class=""><br class="">You’d be wrong to think that it’s just a slapdash quiz<br class="">taken in makeshift accommodations. Oh no.<br class="">I’m standing on the set and I see how strong it is.<br class="">The props are surprisingly precise.<br class="">The machine rotating the stage has been around even longer.<br class="">The farthest galaxies have been turned on.<br class="">Oh no, there’s no question, this must be the premiere.<br class="">And whatever I do<br class="">will become forever what I’ve done.<br class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Wisława Szymborska</div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>(Translation by <span style="caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: rgb(38, 38, 38); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak)</span></div><br class=""></div></div></body></html>