A poignant and evocative poem, by Eliza, exclusively for Different Truths.

If the world stopped for a moment,
I could sit,
listen to the silence that becomes,
watch how
a river stops flowing,
how the trees congeal into motionlessness.

If the world stopped for a moment,
and I with it?
I would not see
flowering meadows,
where a river becomes just a line,
and the still trees
look like sculptures,
I would not hear the ubiquitous silence.

If the world stopped
even for one day
then people –
could not hurt people.

– Translated by Artur Komoter

Photo from the Internet