What a piece of astonishing good fortune
What a piece of astonishing good fortune
it was, when under Fleming’s microscope
that first speck of penicillin grew –
It could so easily have lodged in
other useless places, just imagine:
some long forgotten coffee cup
on a window sill, for instance, or a rotten
potato, thrown away, pitted with mildew.
But then, would the indispensable
invention of a microbiologist
have escaped us? Would it not exist,
this blessing we all depend on?
No. Someone would make the discovery.
If not an Englishman in twenty-nine
then perhaps a Frenchman –
or even a Russian in nineteen-thirty.
Baby mould, you are like Luck itself:
chancy, spotty, unprepossessing,
nothing to do with work or giving oneself
up to selfless work with dedication –
some moist, cloudy stains appear
as if on a spread-out wet sheepskin
and there it is: a secret meaning,
a treasure, enigmatically concealed within.
Translated by Elaine Feinstein
Page(s) 231-232
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