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Poetry

Psalm XCI

By Julia Fiedorczuk
Translated from Polish by Bill Johnston
Disaster and disease haunt life on Earth in this unsettling poem from Julia Fiedorczuk’s Psalms, out now from University of Wisconsin Press.
A photograph of tombstones covered in autumn leaves and overgrowth in a forest
Photo by Samuel Š on Unsplash

it was dreamed
to take a living child out of a paltry grave

there was no child
under the rubble of the school

Mary came haunting
wind sucked out the water of the ocean

disease came haunting
attached itself

disease came dwelling
now it eats my bread

we eat together
expelled from rock and soil

we flourish
side by side we flourish—

From Psalms by Julia Fiedorczuk. Reprinted by permission of the University of Wisconsin Press. © 2023 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. All rights reserved.

English Polish (Original)

it was dreamed
to take a living child out of a paltry grave

there was no child
under the rubble of the school

Mary came haunting
wind sucked out the water of the ocean

disease came haunting
attached itself

disease came dwelling
now it eats my bread

we eat together
expelled from rock and soil

we flourish
side by side we flourish—

Psalm XCI

było marzone
z lichego grobu wyjąć żywe dziecko

nie było dziecka
pod gruzami szkoły

nawiedziła Maria
wiatr wyssał wodę z oceanu

nawiedziła choroba
przywiązała się

zamieszkała choroba
teraz je mój chleb

razem to jemy
wytrącone z kamienia i gleby

kwitniemy
wspólnie kwitniemy—

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