Jan Twardowski
The Quail
Quail, you who always sound loudest
at sunrise and sundown
isn’t it so that there are only two pure moments
the early one light and the other at twilight
when God gives a day and when He takes it away
when somebody sought me and when I’m superfluous
when somebody loved me and when I’m left alone
when I am born and when I die
those two seconds which will always come
the one white the other dark
so very genuine that both are naked
so far beyond us that we are no longer there
Translated by Sarah Lawson, Malgorzata Koraszewska
Page(s) 181
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