Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

Forced March

Crazy. He stumbles, flops, gets up, and trudges on again.

He moves his ankles and his knees like one wandering pain,

then sallies forth, as if a wing lifted him where he went,

and when the ditch invited him in, he dare not give consent,

and if you were to ask why not? perhaps his answer is

a woman waits, a death more wise, more beautiful than this.

Poor fool, the true believer: for weeks, above the rooves,

but for the scorching whirlwind, nothing lives or moves:

the housewall’s lying on its back, the prunetree’s smashed and bare;

even at home, when dark comes on, the night is furred with fear.

Ah, if I could but believe it: that not only do I bear

what’s worth the keeping in my heart, but home is really there:

if it might be!–as it once was, on a veranda old and cool,

where the sweet bee of peace would buzz, prune marmalade would chill,

late summer’s stillness sunbathe in gardens half-asleep,

fruit sway among the branches, stark naked in the deep,

Fanni waiting at the fence blonde by its rusty red,

and shadows would write slowly out all the slow morning said–

but still it might yet happen! The moon’s so round today!

Friend, don’t walk on. Give me a shout and I’ll be on my way.

— MIKLOS RADNOTI September 1944

(Translated and reprinted with the permission of Zsuzsanna Ozsváth and Frederick Turner.)

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.