Artificial Boundaries
“Oh, the leaky boundaries of man-made states!
—Wislawa Szymboska
Good Morning Readers,
The above line is the first line from Wislawa Szymborska’s poem Psalm,” which is below. Much of the conflict in the world is because humans, for a variety of reasons, create boundaries between things that the rest of nature doesn’t recognize or honor. Here’s “Psalm.”
PSALM
Oh, the leaky boundaries of man-made states! How many clouds float past them with impunity; how much desert sand shifts from one land to another; how many mountain pebbles tumble onto foreign soil in provocative hops! Need I mention every single bird that flies in the face of frontiers or alights on the roadblock at the border? A humble robin - still, its tail resides abroad while its beak stays home. If that weren't enough, it won't stop bobbing! Among innumerable insects, I'll single out only the ant between the border guard's left and right boots blithely ignoring the questions "Where from?" and "Where to?" Oh, to register in detail, at a glance, the chaos prevailing on every continent! Isn't that a privet on the far bank smuggling its hundred-thousandth leaf across the river? And who but the octopus, with impudent long arms, would disrupt the sacred bounds of territorial waters? And how can we talk of order overall? when the very placement of the stars leaves us doubting just what shines for whom? Not to speak of the fog's reprehensible drifting! And dust blowing all over the steppes as if they hadn't been partitioned! And the voices coasting on obliging airwaves, that conspiratorial squeaking, those indecipherable mutters! Only what is human can truly be foreign. The rest is mixed vegetation, subversive moles, and wind.
Translated by Stanisław Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh
Symborska uses a light, humorous and ironic tone in the poem, which contrasts with the serious subject, making the absurdity of human boundary-building even more pronounced. We are the intruders in the natural world, not the other way around. Insects and animals ignore our foolishness. She also titles the poem, “Psalm,” which is typically an Old Testament song of praise for God’s creation. The psalm is for the freedom of the natural world, not the restrictions of the human world.
Szmborska has several poems that address the arbitrary, fleeting, human-centric, and ultimate meaninglessness of political borders and boundaries. None are better than this one. I live in a rural area in Santa Fe County. The property lots are an acre or more. There’s plenty of space between homes. I have a neighbor whose property is 25 acres or so. The lot was unfenced when they bought it. Before they bought it and built a home, I would walk my dog across it.
Soon after building their house, they put up a chain-link fence with “No trespassing” signs every six feet or so around their property. The number of signs seems absurd. It makes their property look like a high-security facility. Coyotes walk past the signs. Ravens fly over them. Clouds float over them. Maybe the sign postings are comforting to the people who live there. I try to understand what’s behind the signs. Fear? Probably.
It seems history teaches that humans cannot coexist without defined borders, even between my house and yours, but as “Psalm” illuminates, we really do need to understand just how much or how little they are good for.
These are my questions for you this week: What do you do to break down barriers? The opposite question: What barriers do you still hold? What keeps you from letting go of them?
I look forward to hearing your comments.
David
