journey to kraków - zbigniew herbert

Journey To Krakow
by Zbigniew Herbert (tr. Milosz & Scott)

As soon as the train got going
the tall dark type begins
and he speaks like this to the boy
with a book on his knees

- you like to read boy

- I like it - replies the latter
it makes the time go by
always plenty of work at home
here it doesn't bother people

- Well there you're certainly right
what is it you're reading

- The Peasants - replies the latter
very true to life
only a little too long
it's the right length for winter

I've also read The Folk Wedding
that's actually a play
very hard to follow
too many people

The Deluge is something else again
you read and it's like you'd seen it
really - he says - great
almost as good as a movie

Hamlet - by a foreign writer
also very interesting
only this Danish prince
is a bit too much of a sissy

tunnel
dark in the train
the conversation suddenly breaks off
the authoritative commentary ceases

in the white margins
the prints of fingers and the soil
have marked with rough thumb-nail
rapture and condemnation