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Sea Unawares

The Sea And The Man

by Anna Swir (1909-1984)

You will not tame this sea
either by humility or rapture.
But you can laugh
in its face.
Laughter
was invented by those
who live briefly
as a burst of laughter.
the eternal sea
will never learn to laugh.

Translated from the Polish by Czeslaw Milosz and Leonard Nathan

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