print previewback EDWARD MAYES
On Lines from Czesław Miłosz’s “Meaning”
The Miłoz text, appearing in whole in the linked titles of the sequence below,
was translated from Polish by Czesław Miłosz and Robert Hass.
When I die, I will see the lining of the world
The other side, beyond bird, mountain, sunset
The true meaning, ready to be decoded
What never added up will add up
What was incomprehensible will be comprehended
And if there is no lining to the world
If a thrush on a branch is not a sign
But just a thrush on a branch? If night and day
Make no sense following each other
And on this earth there is nothing except this earth
Even if that is so, there will remain
A word wakened by lips that perish
A tireless messenger who runs and runs
Through interstellar fields, through the revolving galaxies
And calls out, protests, screams.
