INTRODUCTION
And Chen, I have heard, was an exquisite poet,
Which I must take on faith, for he wrote in Chinese.
SuI try Octobers, cool Julys, trees blossom in February.
Here the nuptial flight of hununingbirds does not forecast spring.
Only the faithful maple sheds its leaves every year.
For no reason, its ancestors simply learned it that way.
I
sensed Budberg was right and
I
rebelled.
So I won't have power, won't save the world?
Fame will pass me by, no tiara, no crown?
Did I then train myself, myself the Unique,
To compose stanzas for gulls and sea haze,
To listen to the foghorns blaring down below?
Until it passed. What passed? Life.
Now I am not ashamed of my defeat.
One murky island with its barking seals
Or a parched desert is enough
To make us say: yes,
Olli, si.
"Even asleep we partake in the becoming of the world."
Endurance comes on ly from enduring.
With a flick of the wrist I fashioned an invisible rope,
And climbed it and it held me.
What a procession!
Quelles defices!
What caps and hooded gowns!
Most respected Professor Budberg,
Most distinguished Professor Chen,
Wrong Honorable Professor Milosz
Who wrote poems in some unheard-of tongue.
Who will count them anyway. And here sunlight.
So that the flames of their tall candles fade .
And how many generations of hummingbirds keep them company
As they walk on. Across the magic mountain.
And the fog from the ocean is cool, for once again it is July.
13
Jerzy
IIIg:
The dramatic and moving confession in "The Magic Mountain"
contains the destiny of the proud poet-his voluntary exile, his conviction
about his vocation and its futility, the awareness that he will not be able to
"save the world," the bitterness ofloneliness, his loyalty to himself, and his per–
sistence in climbing the "invisible rope" thrown by himself. But I cannot
