I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.
......
FROM off a hill whose concave womb reworded
A plaintful story from a sistering vale,
My spirits to attend this double voice accorded,
And down I laid to list the sad-tuned tale;
Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale,
Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain,
Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain.
Upon her head a platted hive of straw,
Which fortified her visage from the sun,
......
But, lo! from forth a copse that neighbours by,
A breeding jennet, lusty, young, and proud,
Adonis' trampling courser doth espy,
And forth she rushes, snorts and neighs aloud;
The strong-neck'd steed, being tied unto a tree,
Breaketh his rein, and to her straight goes he.
Imperiously he leaps, he neighs, he bounds,
And now his woven girths he breaks asunder;
The bearing earth with his hard hoof he wounds,
......
NOR dread nor hope attend
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all;
Many times he died,
Many times rose again.
A great man in his pride
Confronting murderous men
Casts derision upon
Supersession of breath;
......
The moon in the bureau mirror
looks out a million miles
(and perhaps with pride, at herself,
but she never, never smiles)
far and away beyond sleep, or
perhaps she's a daytime sleeper.
By the Universe deserted,
she'd tell it to go to hell,
and she'd find a body of water,
......
Ik sta recht in de storm,
niet omdat het makkelijk is,
maar omdat het moet.
De grond beweegt,
toch blijft ik staan.
"Ballade o duszy narodu"
Próbowali nas wymazać-
traktatami,czołgami,
ciszą,co miała zagłuszyć
nasze imię.
Ale my pamiętaliśmy.
W szeleście śniegu,
w krokach po brukowanych ruinach
szeptaliśmy:Polsko,ziemio ojców naszych,
......
"A Ballad of a Nation's Soul"
They tried to erase us,
with treaties,with tanks,
with silence meant to drown our name.
But we remembered.
In the whisper of snow,
in footsteps over cobbled stones and ruins,
we whispered:Poland,land of our fathers,
you live in us.
......
My pride reminds you
about your lost lover
who stands for you
You are the air that fills my soul,
The whisper in winds that makes me whole.
Yet human I am, with flaw and stain,
Yearning for purity, escaping pain.
In this love, where mercy overflows,
I find myself, in both highs and lows.
No earthly hand, no fleeting embrace,
But in Your sight, I find my place.
......