Image: János Pilinszky (1921 – 1981 Budapest )

EXTRACT FROM A DIARY

- by János Pilinszky

What day is today?
The way I live
I keep on confusing
time's timetable.

"Like thieves" -
in Simone Weil's wonderful words
"on the cross of space and time
we human beings are nailed."

I drift off,
and the splinters
shock me
awake.

At such times I
see the world with piercing
sharpness, try to turn my
head in your direction.

* * *
-Translated from the Hungarian of János Pilinszky by Peter Jay.
)