Shakespeare created the world in seven days.
On the first day he made the sky, the mountains and the chasms of the soul.
On the second day he made the rivers, the seas, the oceans
and the other feelings
and gave them to Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Antony, Cleopatra, and Ophelia,
to Othello and others,
for them and their descendants to master,
forever and ever.
On the third day he gathered all the people
and taught them tastes:
the taste of happiness, of love, of hopelessness,
the taste of jealousy, of glory and so on,
until all tastes ran out.
That's when some fellows arrived who were late.
The creator patted them on the head with sympathy
and told them that all they had to do
was to turn into literary critics
and challenge his work.
Days four and five he had reserved for laughter.
He let the clowns loose doing cartwheels
and allowed kings, emperors
and other hapless people to have fun.
On the sixth day he solved some administrative issues:
he cooked up a storm
and taught King Lear
how a crown of straws should be worn.
There was still some waste left from the making of the world
And he created Richard III.
On the seventh day, he checked to see if there was anything else left to do.
Theatre managers had already filled all the earth with posters,
and Shakespeare thought that after all this toil
he too would now deserve to see a show.
But first, because he was way too exhausted,
he went to die a little.
Translator: Vasile Andreica
see more poems written by: Marin Sorescu
