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No. 4 & 5

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Czeslaw Milosz  

Translated from the Polish by Ryszard J. Reisner  

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IF THERE IS NO

If there is no God
man is bound by his freedom
his keeping of his brother
and bound not to make him grieve
by repeating there is no God.
 

THE OTHER WORLD

What spacious heavenly halls!
Ascending the stairs carved out of air.
Above the clouds paradise hanging gardens.

The spirit escapes from body and glides,
Remembers there is the above
And there is the below.

Have we really lost faith in the other world?
And puff, gone - both Heaven and Hell?

Without saintly meadows where is Salvation?
Where will the sinners union set up shop?

Let us weep, lament for an enormous loss.
Let us trace our faces with coal, unclasp our hair.

Let us beg, let there be a return of
The other world.
 

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