Czeslaw Milosz: "Gift"

A day so happy.
Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden.
Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers.
There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess.
I knew no one worth my envying him.
Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.
To think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me.
In my body I felt no pain.
When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.

"Gift" by Czeslaw Milosz, from New and Collected Poems: 1931-2001 (Ecco, 2003 edition). Translated from the original Polish by Czeslaw Milosz.

Watch the poet read his poem, in both English and the original Polish.

Art credit: "Sailboat in a Great Blue Ocean," wallpaper by unknown photographer.