After the hype over translation of Amanda Gorman’s opening poem “The Hill We Climb,” Marek Lucas Reinfeld responded with a poem.
Everything is habitable
She never lost the resistance and the turmoil of joys and sorrows
Or surrender to the word pulpit of what
Right or wrong, I wasn’t too lazy to stand up against it
To enter all bullies with raised fists
Fight the pigeon, against riots in your head
Unknowingly, to overcome helplessness with the red bull in your eyes
Mood, or always declare your way with rocky pride,
Watching someone put on and get the last bit of it
To see dignity leak, you are against the scaling of the skull,
Against slavery, against all angles of man.
Did not lose resistance, wrestling seed,
You went out wearing a mourning dress, you got off happy
Emergency lane, you can’t talk about everything,
To always see how the grass is on the other side at times
Barren and less green – the point is you can
Move, to see the sea of sadness behind the eyes of others
See lying, angry I am you there,
You want to say that you may not understand everything, and that you are stuck
You don’t find the exact chord, but you will
You feel, yes, you feel it, even if the difference is an inch.
She did not lose resistance, and you can still see when
It is not your place when you have to kneel to a poem
Because someone else makes her habitable, not out of unwillingness,
Not because of defeat, but because you know there is so much more
Inequality, that there are still people who are deprived,
You want brothers, you want one fist, and maybe your hand
Not strong enough, or do you need the other first
To understand reconciliation, you must really feel hopeful
That you are doing something that will make the world better, even though you shouldn’t
Forget: After kneeling, get up and straighten your back together.
Watch Amanda Gorman’s original poem during the opening:
