Emmanuel Mifsud o Polsce.

Wczoraj Immanuel Mifsud obchodził 50 te urodziny. Jest on maltańskim poetą, autorem prozy
oraz wykładowcą literatury na uniwerku. Napisał min. zbiór pt. 'km' gdzie przelał na papier uczucia po podróży w Europie. Był też i w Polsce; odwiedził Kraków, Auschwitz oraz Warszawę. Tak pisze :

IN THE CAFE` OF KRAKOVJA'S TRAIN STATION
Then sorrow overcomes you, holds you close
Laughing the laugh you've heard so often now
right at the point when the ground starts to shudder
beneath the ruthless steel of an incoming train
which comes to take you back from where you came.

Then sorrow overcomes you, makes you his own
With the same fervour he reserves for you.
In the same way the stall—girl glances,
Her eyes expressionless upon you
Despite the black strips of her make—up

Sorrow overcomes with kisses
As treacherous as it has always been.

W 2011 roku otrzymał w Brukseli European Union Prize for Literature za prozę “ W imieniu ojca ( i syna)” [Fl-Isem tal-Missier (tal-iben)] . Nagrodę wręczał – uwaga : Bogdan Zdrojewski, ówczas Minister Kultury a Polska szefowała rotacyjną Prezydencja Rady Unii Europejskiej.

Cruel Steel
(new pictures from Poland)
KRAKOVJA
The train goes by, swiftly, to catch the cry
Of the old crow which watches over Florianska.
Beware, crow! I have returned to rob you
Of this old city which refuses to age.

RETURN TO NOWA HUTA
It seems it takes you some time to learn.
We told you this place is not for you.
It seems you like what's grey, what's brown,
You like to read Death turning round corners,
And you like shooting your digital photos
Of a sorrow which only we can understand.
We thought you'd learned, that you had learned the lesson.
But look, you've caught Tram No Four again,
You've climbed again up to the city of scorching steel
You've walked here again with eyes wide open
Just to record the history of others
Raped by the Party's mortal faith.

And what did you get out of it then, stranger?
Go back to those who wait on the moon's moods
And write a poem about the sea,
Write about rocks, write of the sand.
After all not even Spring visits this place —
It's April— but the sleet is falling still.


AUSCHWITZ
The second time
The grass at Auschwitz is soft and green
Inviting you to kneel and kiss it.
It no longer smells of gas and neither
is it flecked with grey by chimneys...
It is as green as breath emerging through the soil.


NINA CZERKIES
Nina Czerkies sings like a wounded bird.
Her hands too: as soon as they alight on her guitar
Turn into wings dripping blood.
Or it might be the vodka scribbling pictures
I gathered at the corners of Varsavja
Which have nothing in common with this night
In this apartment overflowing with the music
Which only solitude can register.

FI PLAC ZAMKOWY
Dakinar tal—Ġimgħa l—Kbira f'Varsavja
Good Friday in Varsavja
They're gahered peacefully together in the square
Holding small candles smoking grief
Under a crucifix solemnely carried.
Jolanta tells her beads remembering
The words of Pope John Paul, remembering
The country's horrendous night.


Her hair hangs more than halfway down her back,
Her legs move to the pace of Christ's calvary.
She still dreams of the sickle and the hammer.


At every dark stage of the fourteen stations
The age—old memory starts to sprout –
History doesn't need books to be recorded,
History lives on even in the sagging
Of Jesus' body, eternally naked

Of Jesus' body, eternally dead.


Translated by Maria Grech Ganado




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