<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);">Life While You Wait</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><br style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32); color: rgb(32, 32, 32);">Life While-You-Wait.<br>Performance without rehearsal.<br>Body without alterations.<br>Head without premeditation.<br>I know nothing of the role I play.<br>I only know it’s mine. I can’t exchange it.<br>I have to guess on the spot<br>just what this play’s all about.<br>Ill-prepared for the privilege of living,<br>I can barely keep up with the pace that the action demands.<br>I improvise, although I loathe improvisation.<br>I trip at every step over my own ignorance.<br>I can’t conceal my hayseed manners.<br>My instincts are for happy histrionics.<br>Stage fright makes excuses for me, which humiliate me more.<br>Extenuating circumstances strike me as cruel.<br>Words and impulses you can’t take back,<br>stars you’ll never get counted,<br>your character like a raincoat you button on the run —<br>the pitiful results of all this unexpectedness.<br>If only I could just rehearse one Wednesday in advance,<br>or repeat a single Thursday that has passed!<br>But here comes Friday with a script I haven’t seen.<br>Is it fair, I ask<br>(my voice a little hoarse,<br>since I couldn’t even clear my throat offstage).<br>You’d be wrong to think that it’s just a slapdash quiz<br>taken in makeshift accommodations. Oh no.<br>I’m standing on the set and I see how strong it is.<br>The props are surprisingly precise.<br>The machine rotating the stage has been around even longer.<br>The farthest galaxies have been turned on.<br>Oh no, there’s no question, this must be the premiere.<br>And whatever I do<br>will become forever what I’ve done.<br><br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Wislawa Szymborska</span><div><font color="#202020"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><br></span></font></div><div><font color="#202020"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>(Translation<span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></font><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="color: rgb(54, 54, 54); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by S. Baranczak and C. Cavanagh)</span><font color="#202020"><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 32, 32);"><br></span></font></span><br><div dir="ltr"></div></div></div></body></html>