WEBVTT

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Perhaps now the first poem to go
to Lvov which is not very long

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for an American-- for American
standards but medium one--

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not even a medium one.

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Lvov is the English
version of the name

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of the city where I was born.

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The Polish name is Lviv.

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And it is a poem on the
city that I, practically,

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don't know because the
frontiers were changed

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and the cities in
the Soviet Union.

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So I had no chance--

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the family moved westwards.

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I had no chance of knowing the
city which was mine in a way.

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"To Go to Lvov."

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Which station for
Lvov, if not a dream,

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at the dawn, when dew gleams on
a suitcase, when express trains

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and bullet trains
are being born.

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To leave in haste for
Lvov, night or day,

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in September or in March.

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But only if Lvov--

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if Lvov exists, if
it is to be found

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within the frontiers and
not just in my new passport.

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If lances of trees,
of poplar and ash,

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still breathe
aloud like Indians.

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And if streams mumble
their dark Esperanto,

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and grass snakes like soft
signs in the Russian language

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disappear into thickets.

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To pack and set off.

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To leave without
a trace, at noon.

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To vanish like fainting maidens.

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And burdocks, green armies
of burdocks, and below,

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under the canvas
of a Venetian café,

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the snails converse
about eternity.

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But the cathedral rises,
you remember, so straight.

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As straight as Sunday
and white napkins,

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and a bucket full of
raspberries standing

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on the floor, and my desire
which wasn't born yet.

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Only gardens and weeds and
the ember of Queen Anne

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cherries, and indecent Fredo.

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There was always
too much of Lvov.

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No one-- no one could
comprehend its boroughs.

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Hear the murmur of each
stone scorched by the sun.

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At night the Orthodox
church's silence

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was unlike that
of the cathedral.

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The Jesuits baptized plants,
leaf by leaf, but they grew.

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Grew so mindlessly.

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And the joy hovered everywhere,
in hallways and in coffee mills

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revolving by themselves,
in blue teapots,

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in starch, which was the first
formalist, in drops of rain

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and in the thorns of roses.

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Frozen forsythia
yellowed by the window.

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The bells pealed and the air
vibrated, the cornets of nuns

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sailed like schooners
near the theater.

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There was so much of
the world that it had

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to do encores over and over.

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The audience was in a frenzy and
didn't want to leave the house.

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My aunts could
not have known yet

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that I would resurrect them.

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And left so
truthfully, so singly,

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servants, clean and ironed,
ran for fresh cream.

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Inside the houses a bit of
anger and great expectation,

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Brzozowski came as
a visiting lecturer.

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One of my uncles kept writing
a poem entitled, "Why"

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dedicated to the Almighty.

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And there was too
much of Lvov, it

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brimmed the container,
it burst glasses,

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overflowed each pond, lake,
smoked through every chimney,

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turned into fire, storm.

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Laughed with lightning,
grew meek, returned home,

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read the New Testament,
slept on a sofa

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beside the Carpathian rug.

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There was too much of Lvov,
and now there isn't any.

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It grew relentlessly
and the scissors cut it.

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Chilly gardeners as always
in May, without mercy,

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without love, ah, wait till
warm June comes with soft ferns,

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boundless fields of
summer, it is the reality.

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But scissors cut it, along the
line and through the fiber.

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Tailors, gardeners, censors
cut the body and the wreaths,

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pruning shears
worked diligently,

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as in a child's cutout
along the dotted line

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of a roe deer or a swan.

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Scissors, penknives,
and razor blades--

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blades scratched,
cut, and shortened

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the voluptuous
dresses of prelates,

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of squares and houses.

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And trees fell soundlessly,
as in a jungle.

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And the cathedral
trembled, people

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bade goodbye without
handkerchiefs, no tears,

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such a dry mouth.

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I won't see you anymore.

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So much death awaits you.

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Why must every city become
Jerusalem and every man a Jew?

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And now in a hurry just
pack, always, each day,

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and go breathless, go to Lvov.

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After all it exists,
quiet and pure as a peach.

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It is everywhere.

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