VIEW WITH A GRAIN OF SAND 



Wislawa Syzmborska 



( winnner of 1996 Nobel Prize for Lit. ) 







We call it... a grain of sand.... 



but.... it calls itself... neither grain... nor sand.... 



IT does just fine... without a name..... 



whether general.... particular.. permanent..... 



passing......incorrect or apt.... 







Our glance.. our touch.. mean... NOthing to it... 



IT...... does not feel ITself.....seen or touched..... 



AND that it fell out of the windowsill... 



is ONLY our experience....NOT ITs..... 



For IT....it is not different.... from falling... on anything else... 



with no assurance...that it has finished falling.... 



or that it is falling still...... 







The window.. has a wonderful view.. of a lake......... 



but the view... doesn't view ITself... 



IT exists..... in this world..... 



colorless.... shapeless... soundless... odorless.. painless..... 







The lake's floor.. exists floorlessly... 



and its shore... exists.. shorelessly..... 



Its water ... water feels itself.. neither wet ..nor dry.... 



and its waves... to themselves..... are neither... singular or plural..... 



They splash......deaf..... to their own noise..... 



on pebbles..... neither..... large or small.... 







and all this beneath .... a sky... by nature... skyless.... 



in which .. the sun sets ....without... setting at all..... 



and hides... without hiding.... behind.... an UNminding cloud.... 



The wind... ruffles it.... its only reason ....being..... that it blows... 







A second passes..... 



A second second..... 



A third.... 



BUT.... they're ..three seconds... only for us... 







Time has passed...... like a courier.. with urgent news..... 



but that's JUST our simile... 



The character is invented.... his haste.. is make-believe..... 



his news inhuman!!!......