Venice masks

Friday, 3 March 2023

The prayer of the goldfish - Carmen Bernos de Gasztold

O God,
forever I turn in this hard crystal,
so transparent, yet I can find no way out.
Lord,
deliver me from the cramp of this water
and these terrifying things I see through it
Put me back in the play of Your torrents,
in Your limpid springs.
Let me no longer be a little goldfish
in its prison of glass,
but a living spark
in the gentleness of Your reeds.

Carmen Bernos de Gasztold (1919 - 1995) France
Translated by Rumer Godden

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