Stary! honks the young man, addressing an older,
after which I do not understand that much at all,
never did know real Polish shit, cigarettes,
whore (that seems the rhetoric of it), beer and vodka...
Jeden, dwa, trzy, cztery, pięć, sześć, siedem...
it's getting difficult... osiem, dziewięć, dziesięć --
looks impatient as he is ignored; says again:
Stary! old one, I believe. The elder answers
affably, standing in front of a glass wall on to night,
candles reflecting round his shape, the right hand half
of the moon visible; grey hairs and skull glinting.
He's at dispute, with some tolerance; notes me listening;
and comments in English, putting on the accent
more than a little: I am explaining, pointlessly,
to my recalcitrant child standing before us
that I have abandoned ambition in recent years.
Why should I give up lovely time to accumulate
things of the earth when, in a few prompt years from now,
I shall have the warm fires of the universe
glowing to light my way into understanding?
Why should I seize the world when I shall have those stars?
They do not value cupidity, avarice or wealth.
[stary means old in Polish and is pronounced with a short a, like or close
to, our starry
The words jeden, dwa, trzy, cztery, pięć, sześć,
siedem, osiem, dziewięć, dziesięć are the numbers
from one to ten. I looked them up to get the orthography correct
orthography sounds so much better than spelling but ignored it when the
web page told me one is jed; I wrote it as I know it; which may be
wrong; but by then I had the lines written in my head; so I am afraid the
Polish people will just have to change their language. I wondered if I
should use the words at all; and concluded that it's ok.]
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Lawrence Upton
Visiting Fellow, Music Dept,
Goldsmiths, University of London
New Cross, London SE14 6NW
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