The window has a wonderful view of a lake, but the view doesn't view itself. It exists in this world colorless, shapeless, soundless, odorless, and p… - Wisława Szymborska

Yes, the memory still moves her. Yes, just a little tired now. Yes, it will pass. You may get up. Thank her. Say good-bye. Leave, passing by the new arrivals in the hall.

We call it a grain of sand,
but it calls itself neither grain nor sand.
It does just fine, without a name,
whether general, particular,
permanent, passing,
incorrect, or apt.

Our glance, our touch means nothing to it.
It doesn’t feel itself seen and touched.
And that it fell on the windowsill
is only our experience, not its.
For it, it is not different from falling on anything else
with no assurance that it has finished falling
or that it is falling still.

The window has a wonderful view of a lake,
but the view doesn’t view itself.
It exists in this world
colorless, shapeless,
soundless, odorless, and painless.

The lake’s floor exists floorlessly,
and its shore exists shorelessly.
The water feels itself neither wet nor dry
and its waves to themselves are neither singular nor plural.
They splash deaf to their own noise
on pebbles neither large nor small.

And all this beheath a sky by nature skyless
in which the sun sets without setting at all
and hides without hiding behind an unminding cloud.
The wind ruffles it, its only reason being
that it blows.

A second passes.
A second second.
A third.
But they’re three seconds only for us.

Time has passed like courier with urgent news.
But that’s just our simile.
The character is inverted, his hasts is make believe,
his news inhuman.

DESPEDIDA DE UN PAISAJE

No le reprocho a la primavera
que llegue de nuevo.
No me quejo de que cumpla
como todos los años
con sus obligaciones.

Comprendo que mi tristeza
no frenara la hierba.
Si los tallos vacilan
será sólo por el viento.

No me causa dolor
que los sotos de alisos
recuperen su murmullo.

Me doy por enterada
de que, como si vivieras,
la orilla de cierto lago
es tan bella como era.

No le guardo rencor
a la vista por la vista
de una bahía deslumbrante.

Puedo incluso imaginarme
que otros, no nosotros,
están sentados ahora mismo
sobre el abedul derribado.

Respeto su derecho
a reír, a susurrar
y a quedarse felices en silencio.

Supongo incluso
que los une el amor
y que él la abraza a ella
con brazos llenos de vida.

Algo nuevo, como un trino,
comienza a gorgotear entre los juncos.
De veras los deseo
que lo oigan.

No exijo ningún cambio
de las olas a la orilla,
ligeras o perezosas,
pero no obedientes.

Nada le pido
a las aguas junto al bosque,
a veces esmeralda,
a veces zafiro,
a veces negras.

Una cosa no acepto.
Volver a ese lugar.
Renuncio al privilegio
de la presencia.