The Other World

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I don’t believe in the other world

But I don’t believe in this world either if its not penetrated by light

I believe in the body of a woman hit by a car on the street

I believe in bodies stopped in a rush in mid-gesture in reaching out as if something long awaited was just about to happen as if in a minute meaning was to raise up its index finger

I believe in the blind eye in the deaf ear in the lame leg in the wrinkle on the forehead in the red flush on a cheek
I believe in bodies lying in the trust of sleep in the patience of old age in the frailty of the unborn

I believe in a hair of the dead left on a brown beret

I believe that radiance spreads splendidly on all things even on a beetle which struggles on its back helpless as a pup

I believe that the rain stitches together heaven and earth and that with this rain angels visibly descend like winged frogs 

I don’t believe in this world empty like a railway station in the morning when all the trains have left for the other world

The world is one especially when it wakes up covered in dew and God walks among the bushes of animal and human dreams.


–Anna Kamieńska
Tomasz P. Krzeszowski and Desmond Graham translation

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