Easy to Lose Faith.

April 20, 2026 by languagehat 2 Comments

I happened on this translation by Clare Cavanagh and Michał Rusinek of a Miron Białoszewski poem in the NYRB:

It’s Easy to Lose Faith

A horse and cart went past.
I see. I believe in them.

They grow dark.

The horse and cart went past.
But the horse had a horse.
The cart had a cart.

They led their own selves
large from shadows
along the acacias.

And now it’s hard for me to believe
in the horse and cart.

Here’s the original Polish:

Jak łatwo stracić wiarę

Przeszedł koń i fura.
Widzę. Wierzę w nich.

Ściemnia się.

Przeszedł koń i fura.
Ale koń miał konia.
Fura miała furę.
Prowadzili te swoje
wielkie z cieni
po akacjach

I już mi trudno uwierzyć
w konia i furę.

I like the poem and the translation; what I’m wondering is if Prowadzili te swoje wielkie z cieni necessarily implies they were leading “their own selves” or simply unspecified large things of theirs. I do not know Polish, I just triangulate from other Slavic. Also, doesn’t Ściemnia się mean “It’s getting dark” rather than “They grow dark”?

As for the title, the Polish literally translates to “How Easy It Is to Lose Faith”; I like that better than the abbreviated one Cavanagh and Rusinek chose, even though I realize “It’s Easy to Lose Faith” is snappier and probably more attractive to the English-language reader.

Comments

Brett says

April 20, 2026 at 4:57 pm

“How Easy It Is to Lose Faith” is definitely better.

Both the theme and the motif of the poem—short as it is—reminded me of Waiting for Godot.
languagehat says

April 20, 2026 at 5:26 pm

Hey, I like that comparison.

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