Thursday, March 01, 2007

"A Word on Statistics," by Wislawa Szymborska

(to mark my 350th post)

Out of every hundred people

those who always know better:
fifty-two.

Unsure of every step:
nearly all the rest.

Ready to help,
as long as it doesn't take long:
forty-nine.

Always good,
because they cannot be otherwise:
four--well, maybe five.

Able to admire without envy:
eighteen.

Led to error
by youth (which passes):
sixty, plus or minus.

Those not to be messed with:
forty and four.

Living in constant fear
of someone or something:
seventy-seven.

Capable of happiness:
twenty-some-odd at most.

Harmless alone,
turning savage in crowds:
more than half, for sure.

Cruel
when forced by circumstances:
it's better not to know
not even approximately.

Wise in hindsight:
not many more
than wise in foresight.

Getting nothing out of life but things:
thirty
(although I would like to be wrong).

Doubled over in pain,
without a flashlight in the dark:
eighty-three,
sooner or later.

Those who are just:
quite a few at thirty-five.

But if it takes effort to understand:
three.

Worthy of empathy:
ninety-nine.

Mortal:
one hundred out of one hundred--
a figure that has never varied yet.

-- from the collection Miracle Fair, translated by Joanna Trzeciak

5 comments:

  1. I like that. Thanks for sharing.

    Lois

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  2. 'First among equal miracles:

    cows are cows.'


    She's so great!

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  3. wow, those statistics are sobering. You can't help but wonder where you fit in. I see many places where the numbers point to me. But I won't say which ones. Except the last one of course.

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  4. I am posting this on my blog, too, but for a different reason :)

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  5. rather beautiful poem and I must say that it is a pretty good translation, poems are always hard to translate and I think that Joanna Trzeciak made great job, thanks for sharing this poem!

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