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Friday, January 14, 2011

Youthwork - Conflict Societies

THE PERILS, PROMISE, AND PRACTICE OF
YOUTHWORK IN
CONFLICT SOCIETIES

We are the children of an epoch,
the epoch is political.

Everything of yours, ours, theirs,
daytime affairs, night-time affairs,
are political affairs.

Like it or not,
your genes have a political past,
your skin has a political hue,
and your eyes a political aspect.

What you speak about has resonance,
What you hush has a voice
more or less political.

Even walking through field or forest
you take political steps
on a political basis.

Apolitical verses are also political, and the moon above
is shining a thing no longer moonly.
To be or not to be, that is the question.
What kind of question? answer, my dear.
A political question.

From Children of an Epoch, Wislawa
Szymborska, trans. Walter Whipple available
http://www.mission.net/poland/warsaw/
literature/poems/epoch.htm

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