Funny little thing. How could she know that even despair can work for you if you’re lucky enough to outlive it. I’d - Wisława Szymborska

Nothing has changed.
The body is susceptible to pain,
It must eat and breath air and sleep,
It has thin skin and blood right underneath,
An adequate stock of teeth and nails,
Its bones are breakable, its joints are stretchable.
In tortures all this is taken into account.

Nothing has changed.
The body shudders as it is shuddered
Before the founding of Rome and after,
In the twentieth century before and after Christ.
Tortures are as they were, it’s just the earth that’s grown smaller,
And whatever happens seems on the other side of the wall.

Nothing has changed.
It’s just that there are more people,
Besides the old offenses, new ones have appeared,
Real, imaginary, temporary, and none,
But the howl with which the body responds to them,
Was, and is, and ever will be a howl of innocence
According to the time-honored scale and tonality.

Nothing has changed.
Maybe just the manners, ceremonies, dances,
Yet the movement of the hands in protecting the head is the same.
The body writhes, jerks, and tries to pull away
Its legs give out, it falls, the knees fly up,
It turns blue, swells, salivates, and bleeds.

Nothing has changed.
Except of course for the course of boundaries,
The lines of forests, coasts, deserts, and glaciers.
Amid these landscapes traipses the soul,
Disappears, comes back, draws nearer, moves away,
Alien to itself, elusive
At times certain, at others uncertain of its own existence,
While the body is and is and is
And has no place of its own.

LA ESTACIÓN DE FERROCARRIL.

Mi no llegada a la ciudad de N
tuvo lugar puntualmente.

Fuiste avisado
con una carta no enviada.

Lograste no llegar
a la hora prevista.

El tren llegó al andén número tres.
Bajó mucha gente.

Entre la muchedumbre se dirigió a la salida
la ausencia de mi persona.

Varias mujeres me sustituyeron
rápidamente
en aquella prisa.

A una de ellas se acercó corriendo
alguien desconocido para mí
pero ella lo reconoció
al instante.

Ambos intercambiaron
un beso no nuestro,
durante el cual se perdió
no mi maleta.

La estación de la ciudad de N
pasó bien el examen
de la existencia objetiva.

La totalidad estaba en su lugar.
Los detalles se movían
por las vías marcadas.

Tuvo lugar incluso
la cita acordada.

Fuera del alcance
de nuestra presencia.

En el paraíso perdido
de la posibilidad.

En otra parte.
En otra parte.
Como suenan estas palabras.

I remember it so clearly — how people, seeing me, would break off in midword. Laughter died. Lovers' hands unclasped. Children ran to their mothers. I didn't even know their short-lived names. And that song about a little green leaf — no one ever finished it near me.