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Poetry

Return from Assisi

By Ryszard Krynicki
Translated from Polish by Alissa Valles

A mutilated Giotto. A loud: Silenzio!
From a car transporting animals
we passed on the way
the helpless look of a calf
being taken off to slaughter
follows me.

Help, Saint Francis.
Appear before the slaughterhouse gate.
And if you are busy at the moment,
please send
your brother Sylvester

or a wolf from Gubbio.

 

English

A mutilated Giotto. A loud: Silenzio!
From a car transporting animals
we passed on the way
the helpless look of a calf
being taken off to slaughter
follows me.

Help, Saint Francis.
Appear before the slaughterhouse gate.
And if you are busy at the moment,
please send
your brother Sylvester

or a wolf from Gubbio.

 

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