Archive > Vol. 12 no. 2

Julia Hartwig 

Ghosts

Translated from the Polish by John and Bogdana Carpenter

We were talking about ghosts. That at some time
they may appear before us.
    They already called us on that misty, windy night—
“Hamlet, Hamlet!”
    We were wondering about poison. That one day we
might have to drink it
    We drank it already.
    We were thinking that the moment of trial will
come.
    Meanwhile the pilgrims, that we carried with us,
have been resting a long time at the bottom of the sea, and
are no longer recognizable.
    We think: starting tomorrow we will really live.
    But this is life, and some of us are already dead
for good.