Green: Therefore It Is

By Miron Białoszewski

Translated by Clare Cavanagh and Michał Rusinek

You are…you are not…

to believe in you or doubt

whatever you’re made of—

or even if

you’re made of nothing

——you’re green—

from moony glaze

oh winter landscape

just pottery

a little lived-in

and cold——

with ornaments of trees and haze

along the rim

And though I know nothing about you

or the worm of microvoid

that gnaws you

or about calling you the snow

or the town’s edge

or the bottom

of the lunar night

you may play the loveliest

part of anxiety to me

Translated from the Polish

Notes:

Audio poem performed by Clare Cavanagh.

Read the Polish-language original, “Zielony: więc jest,” and the translator’s note by Clare Cavanagh.

Source: Poetry (September 2023)

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