WEBVTT

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This is "Kubota Returns
to the Midst of Life",

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a poem addressed to
Tadeusz Rozewicz,

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the poet of the
Polish reconstruction

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after World War II.

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Coming back, I've been helped
by the lessons you have taught,

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Tadeusz.

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That a man's task is not
only to rebuild a country,

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but his own household.

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And even more, the
spirit of home, of wife,

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of meat and rice, of lights on
at night, and no one slamming

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shut the door that locks you in.

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"This is bread," you told
me, as I smoked in my cell.

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"This is life."

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And I said, "Yes,
this is Kubota's life.

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To live near the sea, to
harvest from his garden,

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to sharpen the knife in
the back room of my store

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and walk out of my door and
hold the blade up to the sun

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so I could see it shine."

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"This is a man," you said.

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A man's life is important.

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It is of the highest importance.

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And it was my
mantra every moment

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I felt my heart shrink
back small as a walnut,

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black and withered with the
fear of a man who was a number.

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I created myself after
my death, Tadeusz.

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I constructed life with
desert and memories of home.

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"This is a window," you told me.

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And I gazed beyond
it to the future

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where a garden awaited
me with my wife

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in it, holding in her arms
the pink and yellow blossoms

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from plumeria trees.

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The blossoms fell, Tadeusz.

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Fell from her arms
heavy with scent

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as she swayed to the music
of all the objects of life.

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It was my welcome home.

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My son's shy and
awkward, not yet man.

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My grown daughter is
laughing and weeping.

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One of the old villagers
pulling a goat by a rope

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and giving me its
life as tribute

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to my silence years long
and refusal to betray them.

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This is a man, this is
a tree, this is bread,

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you have taught me.

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People nourish themselves
in order to live,

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and I ate what was given
for the sake of returning

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to the midst of life.

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So I could talk to the water,
so I could stroke the waves

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in the lagoon with
my hand, so I could

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converse with the river running
through our village past cane

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fields down to the fish
ponds and out over the reef.

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"Our lives are of
great importance,"

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I shouted to my
wife when I returned

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to her arms full
of plump blossoms.

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Human life is
important as I talk

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to the water and the
moon and the flowers.

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"This is Kubota," I said
to the Earth, to the rain.

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And if I heard a voice flowing
from the sky, the Earth,

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or the sea, Tadeusz, it was a
stubborn one from the threshold

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of your house.

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