Jacek Kaczmarski - Opowieść pewnego emigranta

- Don't be afraid, it is enought. It's countrs clean*.
I, you see, was an communist before the war,

Because I wanted to be someone, because I am a Jew,
And if Jew wasn't someone, then this Jew was like nobody.

Maybe world has such a profit from us,
That bankers and fidlers aren't called - you little Jew !

I wasn't a banker or virtuose,
War in Russia I survived, got used to chill,

And on my own legs I crossed Bug*
With the Red Army, as Politrug*.

i was like a Moses, I carried the New Laws,
On which Rebuild should be based.

And them Me - a loyal communist
Got requalificated to manicureist.

I love Mozart, God - is a Bach for me,
And there where I worked - only blood and fright.

I slept well - hearing human screams behind wall,
But I couldn't sleep with sound of music.

Ant after Octobers so called "events",
I didn't work in the Office, I was a journalist.

I knew languages, not to teach me how
Write directly, what is easier to write backwards.

Then the thought arose - accidentally perhaps,
I tied myself with this country - the worst I could.

For this disgrace of merit - Warsaw or Krakow -
Gomułka* told us - Poland for Poles.

Not for strangers anymore Common Thing -
Wiesław, like Pharaoh, rushed us away.

And there were professors, scholars, writers,
Office employees, and journalists.

In Tel-Aviv just around the corner, out of rush
I ran into a former colleague from the Office,

And I was ashamed to go to the Wailing Wall -
Am I a communist, a Pole, or a Jew?

I couldn't take glory like him now,
By making a bankrupt a hero.

I left. I moved here to the States.
They say - what communism is - teach Americans.

Tell them what you know, what's on your conscience
And you will redeem your sins and regain your face.

And I can't even put it into words
What does it look like that when - destroying - it was building.

And this is how I doom myself:
Music lover - not a violinist, not a banker - but a security officer,

Political officer - not Russian game.
Neither a Zionist nor a goy!

As I say to Jehovah - Stand behind me, Yahweh
With this Poland bound by the umbilical cord of shame!



clean - vodka without other than necessary ingrindmends

Bug - river that shapes todays Poland eastern border

politrug - rus. ; political menager