It doesn’t matter to me: is there a god or not
And certainly I would believe in him,
But I don’t even have that much free time.
If He helps me, it’s better for Him,
If He doesn’t help, it won’t get any worse.
If there is, then He couldn’t be worse
Than the one we used to have,
If there is: I don’t worth even a dog,
If there’s not: I don’t worth even a dog,
Neither better nor worse.
Sooner or later the poor
Has to go crazy,
Or hang on to a branch,
Except if he starts to realize,
That the poor here is God,
World-creator God,
The rich are just angels;
Our sigh gives them wings
And in the crawling creation
Why would we need angels?
Benyamin Bensalah
29.08.2020
Translated from the Hungarian poem of Attila József, “Nekem mindegy”(1924).
Thank you for an introduction to a new poet for me. I did google some of his works, which I must say are quite beautiful. https://www.mathstat.dal.ca/~lukacs/ja/poems2/jozsef-eng.htm
He didn’t live an easy life, yet captured the beauty of it and nature.
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I’m so glad I could share it with you. He had a lot of troubles indeed – pressure of social class, political pressure of communism, patriarchal marriage refusal, and so on. But indeed, he used the language in an incredibly beautiful way and I share all of his thoughts.
I appreciate your research on him, you can find a couple of his poems translated by me here. 🙏🤗🌹
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I always enjoy poets from around the world that I’ve never heard of or read. My pleasure. 😊🙏🏼
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