Smile
By
David Pring-Mill
Translators struggle to carry
meaning from one language
to another,
Trying to grant justice
to the beauty in words
that bubble up
from the authorial heart
and fizzle in the mind.
How can they ever
achieve this?
Even a smile can be read incorrectly,
with its intentions muddled
by context, culture, history,
worry, fear, pain!
This messiness is all
we can hope for.
It is impossible to truly know another person,
given that we do not truly know ourselves
and exist within a vastness of unknowing.
A person is only regarded and loved
By impressions evoked.
Poet's Notes: "Smile" is about unknowability and
unattainability. Instead of going beyond the limits for revelation, this poem
acknowledges the existence of limits and it is this acknowledgment that
produces clarity.
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