Friday, October 12, 2018

Song Exile to Siberia (Continued) pg. 38





And the Gendarmes’ chains on the prisoner’s legs
The chains clank on the prisoner’s legs
The prisoner was young, a defendant from Poland
[Judged] for what and to what God only knows
            He gets out of the prison-carriage with a shaking head
            He does not care that he might arouse the Gendarmes to anger
            He turned [his] eyes to the Throne of Happiness
            And [his] breast moaned a song of longing
O, already I’ll no longer see [my] homeland
Leave [me], O leave [me], my sorrowful eyes
Turn [my] glance there to the east
Where my beloved country is vanishing in the darkness
I already have to take leave [of it] forever
            O, already I’ll no longer see my parents
            Not my father, not my mother
            [And] also even my beloved girlfriend
            O, already I’ll no longer see, no longer see her
The Maxims of Zagłoba “Mammon”[1]
Money is, o, Heavenly, money is the Holy Spirit
Something that raises up the valleys, moves hard rocks



[1]Zagłoba” is a heraldic name used by several lines of Polish nobility among them perhaps the family of the author

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