Cirrus@Austlit

English translation of the title: They Went into the Stable...

English translation of first line: Thieves went into the stable,

Editor's note: Perth [i.e. the author lives in Perth].

The title and first line allude to a New Testament passage about shepherds visiting the infant Jesus in a stable, but the poem substitutes thieves, various noxious people and finally 'heartless' 'monsters' for the shepherds, who provoke the otherwise silent child into crying. In Polish, the subject of the first line, 'złodzieje' (thieves), follows the verb 'weszli' (they entered), which makes the substitution surprising; this word order can't be reproduced in the English translation, where the subject comes first.