I Want! pg. 73

I Want!

I want to see you, beloved grain fields

Grain fields of my fatherland, dripping[1] with blood

I want to see you, ruined huts

Those roads where the soldiers went into[2] the corps

I want to see you, trampled fields

Footpaths on which I paced as a child

Whose eternal adversity did not obliterate [them]

I saw your fate in a dream

I want to see you, cottage of my parents

Those old lindens, smashed by bullets

[Those] flowery meadows, with my own eyes

I want to see the unsettled ridges

I want to see you, beloved hamlet

The wooden huts with straw thatch

I long for you, Poland of my fathers

In a dream of you is today my comfort

I want to embrace you, father, peasant[3]

Fall to your feet, kiss your hand

If you survived that bloody deluge

I want to see you, tomb of my mother

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[1] Literally “having been dripping”

[2] i.e. went to enlist

[3] Or “guy”