TE15 Lithuanian Honey Cake

Terribly in Love

THE WET NURSE I have nursed the black-eyed baby of a foreign country Beautiful as a peach, Knowing not a word of that country’s language, Talking to the baby in my native tongue Even before he was able to speak. His parents, strangers dropping in To spend an hour with baby, Touch and hug him. But when they try to talk to him, His first words seem not to be Those they impatiently await. In the wide world of law and money My language melts as snow from clothes, Will not protect as well as armor can. Away from school you will not even use it to write your friend. Then why Choose me as baby’s nurse? Maybe they value in another language Something we, used to that speech, no longer hear —its natural beauty. Beautiful, that’s all, Beautiful because native— As in Provençal the beauty of Provence. Translated by Julie Kane, Manly Johnson, and the author

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