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“A Knocker” by Zbigniew Herbert 🇵🇱 (29 Oct 1924 – 28 Jul 1998)
Translated from the Polish by John Carpenter
There are those who grow
gardens in their heads
paths lead from their hair
to sunny and white cities
​
it’s easy for them to write
they close their eyes
immediately schools of images
stream down their foreheads
​
my imagination
is a piece of board
my sole instrument
is a wooden stick
​
I strike the board
it answer me
yes—yes
no—no
​
for others the green bell of a tree
the blue bell of water
I have a knocker
from unprotected gardens
​
I thump on the board
and it prompts me
with the moralists dry poem
yes—yes
no—no