THE T EAC HER AND HI S ST UDENTS
99
During the takeover of the shipyards and the negotiations with the
Communi st Party , a cl ever filmmaker had gotten hold of cameras and 35nm1
film and documented the entire process in a hard-hitting documentary caJl ed
IMlrkers
qehty.
The authorities confi scated it when martial law was imposed
that December, but a copy had gotten to the Pope in R ome, and with Czeslaw
acting as a midclJ eman, we got it to New Yo rk.
It
was di stributed widely to
regular thea ters. Thereby, Milosz became something of a film di stributor.
It
seems
fi
tting to concl ude with a poem by Al eksander Wat, whi ch,
though exclusively
my
translation , would never have come to be witho ut
Czeslaw. T he poem expl odes at the end wi th the foo tno te of a C hri stian,
whi ch
I'll
read in a Bos to n Iri sh-Ca th oli c acce nt , whi ch seems perfec t fo r
that foo tno te. "Japanese Archery."
1.
Th e hand tells th e bows tr ing:
Obey me.
T he bows trin g answers th e hand :
Draw Valiantly
T he bows trin g tells the arrow:
o
arrow, fl y.
T he arrow answers the bows trin g:
Speed my fli ght.
The arrow tells th e ta rget:
Be Ill y light.
T he target answers the arrow:
Love me.
2.
Th e ta rget tells ar row, bows trin g, hand an d eye :
Ta twam asi.
Whi ch mea ns in a sacred tongue:
I am th ou.
3.
(Footn ote of a C hri stian:
o
Moth er of God,
watch over th e target, the bow, the arrow
and the archer).
