on a stony bank
a human skull was lying
And in that cry such horror
and such supplication
so great was its despair
that I asked the helmsman:
For what it still cry out? Of what is it still afraid?
What divine judgment could strike it yet again?
Suddenly there came a wave
took hold of the skull
and tossing it about
smashed it against the bank.
Nothing is ultimate
--the helmsman's voice was hollow--
and there is no bottom to evil.
-- Aleksander Wat (translated from the Polish by Czesław Miłosz)
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