The Castle

by Tomasz Rozycki translated by Kombinat!

The rest of the story. We were making love-
they took over the government. And now govern us, 
these, who used to spit the farthest, and sang
the loudest, and on school tests were the cheaters

In power now they are and our names are known to them,
They know where we live, bills they
on stationary paper send, there behind the curtains
of that window across we see that reports are sent

directly onto the black desk. They address us by first name
and for us a workplace they selected and a job title,
for a bit worried they are to name
our true occupation. Maybe they even will

be sending us gifts, because clearly they know,
why we are here, why at night our kitchen
lights are on and why so easy it is

to kill us but so difficult to bury.

Comments

[Albert Ruesga]

I imagine that I see and feel the original language under the translation. Thanks, Kombinat.

[Kombinat!]

.. so difficult to bury us. so difficult.

Today Macduff might say to Macbeth - "I have no sword. My voice is in my blog" but would he succeed in beheading the monster? Is Poetry Enough? - Is the Pen mightier when it's filled with Piss?

Or maybe the truth can only be told by an adult who is not ashamed of his childhood dreams. It seems to me a bit like Rozycki is this kind of a poet. A guy who reminds us all that we were making love to the world and the world loved back and while we were doing that some other school cheaters were taking over the governments. What do we do now? Besides keeping our nights at night?

[Kombinat!]

yes, correction. 'our lights at night' would be the last question.

here is an article on Rozycki
http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/dz_rozycki_kolonie

Poems like Opium

and excerpt:

"And only my son tells the truth, and that's
not like anything I've heard before,
what the television said, what they say in Warsaw
and what hisses from the newspaper"

[Phil]

Poland, the Polish people, K! have much to teach us about keeping ourselves alive as a free people under the rule of the school cheaters. We will be your students, if you will teach us what you remember of the moves that kept you sane under Russian rule, or earlier under the Germans. Did they always talk then of Freedom, or what is some other slogan by which they taught obedience?

[More Ado About Nothing]

.. and if I am not mistaken, the Poles are also learning how to consume, conspicuously and joyously. My last trip to Britain, my British friends were all abuzz about how cheap it was to go to a luxury spa in Krakow for a three-day weekend, how cheap was this, how cheap was that, and how much the Poles seemed to be spending. And so on ...

Seems we've taught them about our freedom ... free to buy, free to eat, free to pay for what you want when you want how you want. I wonder if they too will learn to pay obedience to that freedom, to offer up their wrists, ankles and wallets to the the ties that bind ?

[Phil]

K! has written about this, eloquently, about going back to Poland and finding it once again under occupation, only this time the occupation of Brands, welcomed by the Poles as conquering heroes, welcomed into the most public and the most intimate spaces of life. We are enslaved as ever by our basest impulses.

[More Ado About Nothing]

Yes, I have read his words on that. They were the initial stimulus for what I wrote above.

[Phil]

Hope he will continue to draw parallels and distinctions between Polish experiences and our own. We have much to learn about keeping a culture alive under conditions of constant propaganda, whether commercial or political.

[Kombinat!]

Thank you for kinds words but I have important news...
Poetry and Politics, a poetry reading and conversation with Tomasz Rozycki will be held on Oct 1st, at Boston University.
Anybody from Boston?
see this:
http://www.iwm.at/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=550&Itemid=500

[Kombinat!]

ahem.... that link again.
Tomasz Rozycki at Boston University

[Phil]

Thanks, K! Wish I was in Boston and could attend.