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Tadeusz Borowski, Poland

from Part IV - The Years after 1945

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

Dorothea Heiser
Affiliation:
Holds an MA from the University of Freiburg
Stuart Taberner
Affiliation:
Professor of Contemporary German Literature
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Summary

Obóz pod Monachium

Kamień i zieleń. Pachnie wiatr,

swoboda. Drogi prosto

idą w horyzont. Płot z żelaznych krat.

Karabiny. Policja Posty.

Minione. Zapomniane, Wiem.

Żołnierskim butem—historia?

Opar, mgła nocy, sen, sen:

krematorium.

Więc—akwarium mętnych zdarzeń. Pełznie

lato—niczyje. Ważą się sprawy.

Tłum. Wargi ściśnięte boleśnie.

Nienawiść.

Tysiące ust milczących. Czyste niebo

w oczach nabiegłych strachem.

Kamień i zieleń. Czas martwo zakrzepły.

Monachium …

Camp Near Munich

Stone and green. The wind smells of

freedom. Roads head off straight

into the horizon. Fence with iron bars.

Guns. Police. Posts.

The past. Forgotten, I know.

The soldier's boot—the history?

Mist, fog, night, sleep, sleep:

the crematorium.

So—the aquarium's murky events. The crawling

Summer is no one's. Weigh the matter.

Crowd. Lips pressed painfully.

Hatred.

Thousands of silent mouths. Clean Sky

filled with eyes full of fear.

Stone and green. Congealed dead time.

Munich …

—Translated by Belinda Cooke and Maçiek Mirowski

Sielanka

Wyszli ludzie krematoryjni,

wyszli ludzie tatuowani

na świat wolny, na zielone lato,

między łąki i między łany.

Wyszli ludzie, którzy przeżyli,

wyszli ludzie umarłych szukać.

Wyszli zbierać spalonych popioły

bezimienne, nietrwałe, kruche.

Wyszli ludzie, pogodni, wolni

na świat wolny, na zielone lato.

Zapomnieli szukać w polu popiołu,

nazbierali naręcz prostych kwiatów.

Idyll

The people left the crematoria,

the tattooed people left

into the world of freedom, into the green summer,

between and among the fields of grassland.

The people who survived left.

They went out to look for the dead.

They went out to collect the ashes of the burned—

the nameless, unstable, fragile ones.

The people of hope and freedom left into

the world of freedom, into the green summer.

They forgot to look for the ash in the field,

They gathered an armful of simple flowers.

—Translated by Belinda Cooke and Maçiek Mirowski
Type
Chapter
Information
My Shadow in Dachau
Poems by Victims and Survivors of the Concentration Camp
, pp. 236 - 239
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2014

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