Sunday, September 25, 2016

WHEN THE WORLD STANDS STILL ~

   



  When the World Stands Still


It happens very rarely. The earth's axis screeches and comes to

a stop. Everything stands still then: storms, ships and clouds

grazing in the valleys. Everything. Even horses in a meadow

become immobile as if in as unfinished game of chess.

    And after a while the world moves on. The ocean swallows

and regurgitates, valleys send off steam and the horses pass

from the black field into the white field. There is also heard

the resounding clash of air against air.


________________

Zbigniew Herbert
Selected Poems
Carcanet 1985
translated from the Polish by Czeslaw Milosz and Peter Dale Scott