Blackbird

By Adam Zagajewski.

A blackbird sat on the TV antenna
and sang a gentle, jazzy tune.
Whom have you lost, I asked, what do you mourn?
I’m taking leave of those who’ve gone, the blackbird said,
I’m parting with the day (its eyes and lashes),
I mourn a girl who lived in Thrace,
you wouldn’t know her.
I’m sorry for the willow, killed by frost.
I weep, since all things pass and alter
and return, but always in a different form.
My narrow throat can barely hold
the grief, despair, delight, and pride
occasioned by such sweeping transformations.
A funeral cortege passes up ahead,
the same each evening, there, on the horizon’s thread.
Everyone’s there, I see them all and bid farewell.
I see the swords, hats, kerchiefs, and bare feet,
guns, blood, and ink. They walk slowly
and vanish in the river mist, on the right bank.
I say goodbye to them and you and the light,
and then I greet the night, since I serve her–
and black silks, black powers.