Most Read... John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Joshua WeinerAn Exchange with Daniel Tiffany/Fall 2020
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
Vahni CapildeoOn Judging Prizes, & Reading More than Six Really Good Books
(PN Review 237)
Christopher MiddletonNotes on a Viking Prow
(PN Review 10)
Next Issue Sinead Morrissey 'The Lightbox' Philip Terry 'What is Poetry' Ned Denny 'Nine Poems after Verlaine' Sasha Dugdale 'On learning that Russian mothers buy their soldier sons lucky belts inscribed with Psalm 90 to wear into battle' Rod Mengham 'Cold War Hot Air'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 202, Volume 38 Number 2, November - December 2011.

Three Poems (translated by Marilyn Hacker) Jean-Paul de Dadelsen

The Great Ledger

They'll tell you that sunshine will follow the rain; they'll tell you
That a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
   Don't believe it.
It is good that after the rain comes the deluge; it is excellent
That a bird in the hand brings two wolves out of the bushes; it is necessary
That for not having gone often enough to the well
   The pitcher be broken.


Erase and start again. They'll tell you that after two 9s there's often a
36 And that last summer at Evian zero came up three times in a row.
   It's true
A colonel who'd gone to the Ecole Polytechnique played the limit three times on zero;
Five hundred thousand francs; thank you from the employees, thank you sir from
The accountants of the great ledger where your military service record has always
   Been noted down.

Campaigns under Charles known as the Wise, under Pyrrhus, under Ramses II,
Under Hamurabi; nine wounds; two dead on the scaffold;
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image