So the next-- the other poem of the only two
he wrote in that year, when he was
settling into this new thing.
He was translating American poetry.
Beginning to travel, he went to New Hampshire
and met Robert Frost.
Translated some of the poems of Wallace Stevens.
Later on he would write poems about,
if I should have stayed in America,
I could have become a professor of pears.
Became Stevens.
So this poem is called Child of Europe.
And I'm just going to read a little bit of it.
And this is so that poem is very much in a symbolic mode,
the one that we--
and this is trying to find a new satiric, straightforward voice.
We whose lungs fill the sweetness of day,
who in May admire trees flowering,
we're better than those who perished.
We who taste exotic dishes and enjoy
fully the delights of love, we're
better than those who perished.
We from the fiery furnace, from behind
barbed wire, on which the winds of endless autumns howled.
We who remember battles when the wounded air
roared in a paroxysm of pain.
We, saved by our own cunning and knowledge,
by sending others to the more exposed positions.
By urging them loudly to fight on.
Ourselves withdrawing in certainty
that the cause was lost.
Having the choice of our own death or that of a friend,
we chose his coldly, thinking let it be done quickly.
We sealed gas chamber doors.
We stole bread knowing the next day
would be harder to bear than the day before.
As befits human beings, we explored good and evil.
Our malignant wisdom has no like on this planet, except it
as proven.
We're better than they, the gullible, hot blooded
weaklings, who are careless with their lives.
You get a feel of this.
There can be no question of force triumphant.
We live in the age of victorious justice, don't mention force
or you'll be accused of--
So on you can get--
Love no country, countries soon disappear.
Love no city, cities are soon rubble.
Throw away keepsakes, or from your desk
a choking poisonous fume will exude.
Do not love people, people soon perish or they are wronged
and call for your help.
Don't gaze into the pool of the past.
That corroded surface will mirror
a face very different from the ones you expect.
And so on, with that child of Europe tone.