Possibilities Wisława Szymborska

[Michał Pawica]

Possibilities

I prefer the movies.
I prefer cats.
I prefer oak trees along the Warta.
I prefer Dickens. To Dostoevsky.
I prefer myself liking people
to loving humanity.
I prefer to have 
needle and thread at hand
just in case...
I prefer the color green.
I prefer not to claim
that reason
is always to blame.
I prefer the odd men out.
I prefer to leave ahead of time.
I prefer to talk to doctors about 
something entirely else.
I prefer old grainy photographs.
I prefer the absurd
of writing poetry to that 
of not writing at all.
I prefer to celebrate
love's odd anniversaries 
rather than 
those of every day.
I prefer moralists
who promise nothing at all.
I prefer cunning kindness
to the overly credulous kind. 
I prefer life in plain clothes.
I prefer countries conquered  
to the conquering ones.
I prefer to have doubts. 
I prefer the hell of chaos 
to that of orderliness 
I prefer the Brothers Grimm tales 
to the newspaper's front page.
I prefer leaves without flowers 
to flowers without leaves.
I prefer dogs with unclipped tails.
I prefer light-colored eyes, 
because mine are dark.
I prefer the hind.
I prefer many things I haven't mentioned here,
to many also not.
I prefer zeros at free range
to those lined up in a stat.
I prefer insect time to the time of the stars.
I prefer to touch wood.
I prefer not to ask 
how much longer or when.
I prefer to take into account 
the very chance 
that being  has
its own raison d'être 

 

 

[Annna2]

Wiersz powinien być oznaczony kursywą lub wstawiony cudzysłów.

 

Tłumaczenie Stanisława Barańczaka i Clare Cavanagh