Andrzej Bursa - LEARNING HOW TO WALK

I had so many difficulties

with overcoming laws of gravity

I thought that when in the end I stand on my own two feet

I would get some respect

but they punch me in the face

I don't know what's going on

I try heroically to keep myself upright

and I don't understand it at all

„You are stupid” some well wishers tell me (they are the worst racsals)

„in real life you have to crawl crawl”

so I lay myself down on my belly

with my bum cutely-stupidly sticking up

and I try

from the little sandal to the little shoe

from the little plimsole to the little boot

I am learning how to walk on the world

Translated by W.F.

Andrzej Bursa (pron. Andzhei Boorsah) (1932-1957)

All his short life he lived in Cracow. He made his debut in the press in 1954, although he never wrote praises of socialism. Three years later he died because of problems with his heart. The first book of his poems appeared after his death. He grew up during the Nazi occupation of Poland and the Stalinist terror. Never attracted to the socialist-realism, he wrote poems full of anger, which could only be published after the terror ended. Unfortunately the poet himself did not see that.