Lines in Zofia’s autograph album
Don’t ask a poem of me, Zosia sweet,
For when to our homeland our Zosia will come,
There every flower shall verses repeat,
There every star shall a song to her hum.
Before the blooms fade, before the stars fall,
Listen – these poets are best of them all.The azure stars, and the flowers so red,
An entire poem will for you compose;
I would just copy whatever they said,
For I have learned all my chatter from those;
For there, where Ikwa its silver course runs,
A child, like Zosia, I too played there once.A visitor now, I sojourn afar,
Ill-fortune followed, wherever I went,
Bring to me, Zosia, the light of one star,
Do bring back, Zosia, one such flower’s scent,
My youth I crave again to be given!
- Bring it back for me – as if from heaven.Juliusz Słowacki