Poem for December
I Walked Through the Medieval Town
I walked through the medieval town
in the evening or at dawn,
I was very young or rather old.
I didn’t have a watch
or a calendar, only my stubborn blood
measured the endless expanse.
I could begin life, mine
or not mine, over,
everything seemed easy,
apartment windows were partway open,
other fates ajar.
It was spring or early summer,
warm walls,
air soft as an orange rind;
I was very young or rather old,
I could choose, I could live.
Adam Zagajewski (1945-2021)
from Mysticism for Beginners (1997: Farrar, Straus and Giroux) translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh
A wonderful presentation of the riddle of identity and agency with a steady heartbeat underneath.
IM
