Poesia polacca

 

He who chooses solitude 

  

                                            In memory of Tadeusz Peiper

He Who Chooses Solitude

in memory of Tadeusz Peiper

He who chooses solitude —will not be alone.

He who chooses homelessness—will have the world’s roof overhead. He who chooses death—will not cease living.

He whom death chooses—will die

slightly

If Love

If love outgrows us,

then parting becomes our native tongue

suddenly overheard in unknown stations.

Only the astonishment that seizes

us while reading a love letter’s relics,

only the parting that stuns us: born not of love, but hatred,

for which departure means return.

SEPTEMBER 1969