Where the bird sang

Last night's early sunset. Only a glimpse, 5:32 p.m.

Life

A child is born

in a vast landscape

half a century later

he is simply a dead soldier

and that was the man 

whom one saw appear

and set down on the ground a whole

heavy sack of apples

two or three of which rolled

a sound among the sounds of a world

where the bird sang

on the stone of the door-sill.

Jean Follain       (1903-1971)

              Translated from the French by W.S. Merwin

Transparency of the World; Jean Follain

selected and translated by W. S. Merwin, 

Copper Canyon Press, 2003, page 81.

W. S. Merwin has made a number of splendid translations 
from several languages, They are very worth seeking out.

***

The recent election, which now threatens 

most of what I have believed in and worked for 

since I became a thinking person,

has made me see more clearly 

the value of these apples and birds. 

jhh