"The End and the Beginning"
by Wisława Szymborska
by Wisława Szymborska
After every war someone has to clean up. Things won't straighten themselves up, after all. |
Again we'll need bridges and new railway stations. Sleeves will go ragged from rolling them up. | |
Someone has to push the rubble to the sides of the road so the corpse-laden wagons can pass |
Someone, broom in hand, still recalls how it was. Someone listens and nods with unsevered head. Yet others milling about already find it dull. | |
Someone has to get mired in scum and ashes, sofa springs, splintered glass, and bloody rags. |
From behind the bush sometimes someone still unearths rust-eaten arguments and carries them to the garbage pile. | |
Someone must drag in a girder to prop up a wall, Someone must glaze a window, rehang a door. |
Those who knew what was going on here must give way to those who know little. And less than little. And finally as little as nothing. | |
Photogenic it's not, and takes years. All the cameras have left for another war. |
In the grass which has overgrown reasons and causes, someone must be stretched out blade of grass in his mouth gazing at the clouds. |