Translation:Baltic to Tatras, sonnets / II. The road to Malborg

by Stanislaw Tarnowski

II.

The road to Malborg ^[1]

„From the Marienburg Tower rang
A horsebus ^[2] sounded on the Altmark pavement.
Among the screaming of the children, the clatter of horse hooves.
I think about you, Alf and Aldona!
      You loved a great man on the earth.
      And his sins of life are heavy.
      But is it happier the gentle virtue
      A small aim seeing with blunt eyes?
      No! Who in a whirl of combat and the confusion of the feels
      Though both sails and and masts will lose
      He did not release a spark onto ship of life.
An attack won't break him, a betrayal will not overthrow.
And the Teutonic Knight, seeing the project as miserable
Glad with himself, will roar: ^[3] Woe! Woe!

(I guess that this is allusion to Róża and to Edzio
but I don't know for sure.)^[4]

1. The road to Malbork.
2. „horse-bus” or „horse-drawn omnibus”.
3. Or „Glad at itself [he] will roar”
4. Text was smeared.