Sooner or later, every post-war period
becomes a pre-war period.
The outcome of the Sixth World War
will depend on how we have treated
the prisoners-of-war from the Fifth.
by Борис Абрамович Слуцкий (Boris Abramovich Slutsky)
(early 1960s?)
translated by Robert Chandler
They laid this stone trap
for him, enticing him with candles,
as though he would come like some huge moth
out of the darkness to beat there.
Ah, he had burned himself
before in the human flame
and escaped, leaving the reason
torn. He will not come any more
to our lure. Why, then, do I kneel still
striking my prayers on a stone
heart? Is it in hope one
of them will ignite yet and throw
on its illuminated walls the shadow
of someone greater than I can understand?
by R. S. Thomas
from Frequencies (1978)
Rambling At The Bridge Head 