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The Two Apes of Brueghel

The Two Apes of Brueghel by Wislawa Szymborska translated by Sharon Olds 'Here's my dream of a final exam: two apes, in chains, sitting at a window. Outside the sky is flying and the sea bathes. I am taking the test on human history. I stammer and blunder. One ape, staring at me, listens with irony, the other seems to doze- but when I am silent after a question, she prompts me with a soft clanking of the chain.' Wislawa Szymborska (b.1923) Translated by Sharon Olds © Quarterly Review of Literature Poems on the Underground

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