Courtesy of the Blind by Wislawa Szymborska Nobel Prize in Literature (1996) - The poet reads poetry to the blind.
He didn't think it was that hard.
His voice trembles. His hands are shaking.
He feels that every sentence is here put to the test of darkness.
She will have to manage on her own, without lights and colors.
A risky adventure for the stars of his verses, and the aurora, the rainbow, the clouds, the neon lights, the moon, for the fish so far so silver under the surface of the water, and for the sparrow hawk, so tall and silent in the sky.
He reads - because it is too late not to do it now - of the boy in the yellow jacket in a green meadow, of red roofs, that you can count, in the valley, of the mobile numbers on the players' shirts and of the naked unknown woman on the open door.
He would like to remain silent - although it is impossible - of all those saints on the vault of the cathedral, of that farewell gesture at the train window, of that microscope lens and the flicker of light from the ring and the screens and mirrors and the album. portraits.
But great is the courtesy of the blind, great understanding and generosity.
They listen, smile and applaud.
One of them even approaches with the book open upside down, asking for an autograph that he will not see.