We no longer have history all we have are wasted moments of life forty-eight hours of mock justice this is not history these are not its bells a day’s quicksand sinking voices our funerals in whispering leaves the embrace above the coffin eyes eyes and time rolling over us will not have the face of history but a fox’s sly and treacherous snout
(Translation by Stanislaw Baranczak & Clare Cavanagh)
“A state of inner readiness and waiting. I’m open to all annunciations.” ~ Anna Kamieńska [Annunciation, by Giotto]
• During the Nazi occupation of Poland, Anna Kamieńska (1920–1986) taught at various underground schools in and around Lublin, where she spent her formative years. After graduating from college, she studied Classical Philology at the University of Łódź and went on to marry the poet Jan Śpiewak in 1948. The two collaborated on translations of Russian poetry and drama until Śpiewak’s sudden death from cancer in 1967. More: https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/poem-week-thanking/
• An artist who played a decisive role in the development of Italian painting in his century and beyond… His earliest works, such as the painted crucifix in Santa Maria Novella and the Maestà formerly in San Giorgio alla Costa and now in the Museo Diocesano, both in Florence, and especially his biblical frescoes in the upper church of the basilica of San Francesco at Assisi, reveal the strong influence of the Roman school, both contemporary and classical.
