Japanese Archery, a poem by Aleksander Wat
1.
The hand tells the bowstring:
Obey me.
The bowstring answers the hand:
Draw Valiantly.
The bowstring tells the arrow:
O arrow, fly.
The arrow answers the bowstring:
Speed my flight.
The arrow tells the target:
Be my light.
The target answers the arrow:
Love me.
2.
The target tells arrow, bowstring, hand and eye:
Ta twam asi.
Which means in a sacred tongue:
I am Thou.
3.
(Footnote of a Christian:
O Mother of God,
watch over the target, the bow, the arrow
and the archer).
—Translated by Richard Lourie
This poem serves as the epigraph to Aleksander Wat’s My Century, a memoir based on the Polish futurist’s taped discussions with Czeslaw Milosz. Mavis Gallant admirers might be interested to know that the Wats counted Gallant as one of their dearest friends and that she has translated some his work.
