The verses that express the poetic persona‘s relief not to...

Thank-You Note

d

WislawaSzymborska

d

I owe so much

to those I don‘t love.

The relief as I agree

that some one else needs them more.

The happiness that I‘m not

the wolf to their sheep.

d

The peace I feel with them,

the freedom –

love can neither give

nor take that.

I don‘t wait for them,

as in window-to-door-and-back.

Almost as patient

as a sundial,

I understand

what love can‘t,

and forgive

as love never would.

d

From a rendezvous to a letter

is just a few days or weeks,

not an eternity.

d

Trips with them always go smoothly,

concerts are heard,

cathedrals visited,

scenery is seen.

d

And when seven hills and rivers

come between us,

the hills and rivers

can be found on any map.

d

They desserve the credit

if I live in three dimensions,

in nonlyrical and nonrhetorical space

with a genuine, shifting horizon.

d

They themselves don‘t realize

how much they hold in their empty hands.

"I don‘t owe them a thing,"

would be love‘s answer

to this open question.

d

Translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh