Ana

Profile

Username:
anacoana
Name:
Ana
Location:
Pima, AZ
Birthday:
01/05
Status:
Married
Job / Career:
Other

Stats

Post Reads:
471,535
Posts:
2425
Last Online:
> 30 days ago
View All »

My Friends

> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago

Subscribe

Inspirational Thoughts

Arts & Culture > Poetry & Prose > Life While-you-wait.~ Wislawa Szymborska ~
 

Life While-you-wait.~ Wislawa Szymborska ~



Life While-You-Wait



Life While-You-Wait.

Performance without rehearsal.
Body without alterations.
Head without premeditation.

I know nothing of the role I play.
I only know it's mine. I can't exchange it.

I have to guess on the spot
just what this plays all about.

Ill-prepared for the privilege of living,
I can barely keep up with the pace that the action demands.
I improvise, although I loathe improvisation.
I trip at every step over my own ignorance.
I can't conceal my hayseed manners.
My instincts are for happy histrionics.
Stage fright makes excuses for me, which humiliate me more.
Extenuating circumstances strike me as cruel.

Words and impulses you can't take back,
stars you'll never get counted,
your character like a raincoat you button on the run ?
the pitiful results of all this unexpectedness.

If only I could just rehearse one Wednesday in advance,
or repeat a single Thursday that has passed!
But here comes Friday with a script I haven't seen.
Is it fair, I ask
(my voice a little hoarse,
since I couldn't even clear my throat offstage).

You'd be wrong to think that it's just a slapdash quiz
taken in makeshift accommodations. Oh no.
I'm standing on the set and I see how strong it is.
The props are surprisingly precise.
The machine rotating the stage has been around even longer.
The farthest galaxies have been turned on.
Oh no, there's no question, this must be the premiere.
And whatever I do
will become forever what I've done.

~ Wislawa Szymborska ~


(Poems New and Collected 1957-1997,
trans. S. Baranczak and C. Cavanagh)


Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Life_While_You_Wait.html

posted on Aug 2, 2008 3:20 PM ()

Comments:

There is nothing other than Being, and that is the Joy.
comment by marta on Aug 2, 2008 3:35 PM ()

Comment on this article   


2,425 articles found   [ Previous Article ]  [ Next Article ]  [ First ]  [ Last ]