TĘSKNOTA / A LONGING

26 maja – Dzień Matki. Dla wielu synów i córek jest to dzień tęsknoty.

Mother’s Day in Poland is celebrated on the 26th of May. For many daughters and sons this day is a time of longing.

Przesyłam piękny wiersz wybitnego poety irlandzkiego – Seamusa Heaney’a wraz z portretem matki Marii Kuncewiczowej – Adeliny Róży.
I am sending to you a beautiful poem by an outstanding Irish poet Seamus Heaney and a photo of a Polish writer’s Maria Kuncewicz mother. Her name was Adelina Roza.

 

When all the others were away at Mass
[In Memoriam M.K.H., 1911-1984]

When all the others were away at Mass
I was all hers as we peeled potatoes.
They broke the silence, let fall one by one
Like solder weeping off the soldering iron:
Cold comforts set between us, things to share
Gleaming in a bucket of clean water.
And again let fall. Little pleasant splashes
From each other’s work would bring us to our senses.
So while the parish priest at her bedside
Went hammer and tongs at the prayers for the dying
And some were responding and some crying
I remembered her head bent towards my head,
Her breath in mine, our fluent dipping knives–
Never closer the whole rest of our lives.