SUBJECT:
TITLE:
AUTHOR:
Statistics
A WORD ON STATISTIC
Wislawa Szymborska
SOURCE:
Jamie Fee
QUOTE:
A Word on Statistics
Out of every hundred people,
. . . those who always know better:
fifty-two.
. . . Unsure of every step:
almost all the rest.
. . . Ready to help,
if it doesn't take long:
forty-nine.
. . . Always good,
because they cannot be otherwise:
four - well, maybe five.
. . . Able to admire without envy:
eighteen.
. . . Led to error
by youth (which passes):
sixty, plus or minus.
. . . Those not to be messed with:
four-and-forty.
. . . Living in constant fear
of someone or something:
seventy-seven.
. . . Capable of happiness:
twenty-some-odd at most.
. . . Harmless alone,
turning savage in crowds:
more than half, for sure.
. . . Cruel
when forced by circumstances:
it's better not to know,
not even approximately.
. . . Wise in hindsight:
not many more
than wise in foresight.
. . . Getting nothing out of life except things:
thirty
(though I would like to be wrong).
. . . Balled up in pain
and without a flashlight in the dark:
eighty-three, sooner or later.
. . . Those who are just:
quite a few, thirty-five.
. . . But if it takes effort to understand:
three.
. . . Worthy of empathy:
ninety-nine.
. . . Mortal:
one hundred out of one hundred -
a figure that has never varied yet.
- Wislawa Szymborska
Jamie