This World, Facing the River

 

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It appears that it was all a misunderstanding.
What was only a trial run was taken seriously.
The rivers will return to their beginnings.
The wind will cease in its turning about.
Trees instead of budding will tend to their roots.
Old men will chase a ball, a glance in the mirror -
They are children again.
The dead will wake up, not comprehending.
Till everything that happened has unhappened.
What a relief! Breathe freely, you who have suffered much.


—Czesław Miłosz
This World, Facing the River

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The year's doors open
like those of language,
toward the unknown. 

Last night you told me: tomorrow
we shall have to think up signs,
sketch a landscape, fabricate a plan
on the double page
of day and paper. 

Tomorrow, we shall have to invent,
once more,
the reality of this world.

—Octavio Paz

January First
Elizabeth Bishop version

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