Urszula Koziol, Poland
Por:
Urszula Koziol
Traductor:
Regina Grol-Prokopczyk
For some time now
an old lady
hikes toward me upon the humpbacks of clouds.
I throw a comb over my shoulder so the woods would keep her
I throw a mirror over my shoulder so the waters would keep her
but she is closer and closer
and sometimes I even see her in my dreams.
We greet each other from afar
she looks coldly in my eyes
we are strangers.
Under my skin
I still feel the presence of a young girl -
(we used to pick violets and marsh marigolds together
many a moon
we kissed a boy
through many a dawn we've danced)
she lingers reluctant to leave
looks for excuses to keep living with me -
that's why
my fingers still hold their breath close to a man's fingers
and someone's glance makes
the flutter of birds' wings suddenly rise toward me.
Urszula Koziol was born in the southeast of Poland in 1931. She has lived and worked in Wroclaw since 1950, where she taught Pole during several years. Since 1968 she has been publisher of the Literary Magazine Odra. She has published eight poetry volumes, two novels, short stories and works for the radio and the theater. An essential poet, she dives in search of the deep roots of the human behavior, of the modern man's condition in a world in conflict chaos and war. Her poetry, clear and precise, by means of concrete verses and without abstractions is subject to a strict intellectual discipline, directed by ethical principles that are free of moralist and of political prejudices.
