Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska - The Poems

THE PALACE IN THE ICE (Pałac na lodzie)

My spiral little palace on the pink ice
stays unshaken through blizzards but trembles when it's nice.
Its balconies are tilted, the bedrooms aslant.
There thrills slumber, dreams you long to touch but can't.
The sun loves the bright spot underneath the bell,
the moon pokes its horns out from its attic cell.
There, in the dining room, May laughter breaks its fast
and up and down a staircase cage gold birds fly past.
In the snow by the window bloom snow roses, this year's,
and handkerchiefs dry on the line, soaked wet with tears.
Butterflies swarm round them, a shower of white kisses,
for these tears are happy and sweet as narcissus.
(1924)