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They were Prepared 15
DISPLACED PERSONS
I'VE waited in so many halls
On this same wooden bench
And read that notice on the walls
In English, German, French :
NO SMOKING . . .
RAUCHEN VERBOTEN . . .
DEFENSE DE FUMER . . .
Yet exile has a stronger stench.
Elbows on knees, I've sat amid
This patient Babel-throng ;
Our polyglot behinds have slid
Inch by slow inch along.
ROOKEN VERBODEN . . .
VIETATO FUMARE . . .
PROHIBIDO FUMAR . . .
How long, 0 Lord, how long ?
Stateless and homeless, tempest-tossed,
Uprooted and displaced—
Our antecedents may be lost,
Our relatives untraced,
RYGNING FORBUDT . . .
R0KNING FORBUDT . . .
ROKNING FORBJUDEN . . .
Yet judge us not in haste.
We have our own, our bitter land,
Our own unwritten laws,
And we alone can understand
Our signals and our saws
kourit' zapreshcheno . . .
palenie wzbronione . . .
KOURENf ZAKAZANO . . .
Coined in a losing Cause.
By deeper ties than blood we're bound :
Our senses never cease
To spot, by sight or smell or sound,
Implacable police.
fumatul oprit . . .
pusiti zabrAnjeno . . .
dohAnyozni tilos . . ,
Let us depart in peace.
The swift clock ticks, the slow clerks write,
The heartless hours crawl;
And something warps before our sight
That notice on the wall :
no living . . .
leben verboten . . .
defense de vivre . . .
The Writing on the Wall.
Jan Struther
By permission of the Proprietors of Punch
---oOo---
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