Cirrus@Austlit

English translation of the title: The Song of Swans

English translation of first line: We are above the great water and the air stands clear

The title and first lines suggest the poem is a representation of swans' song as human speech, yet it ends with the image 'z dzidą zatrzymujemy spadające słońce' (we hold up the falling sun with our spear), suggesting the speakers are in fact the Aboriginal people who narrate the rest of the longer untitled poem in which 'Śpiew łabędzi' is embedded (itself part of the sequence 'Opowieść pustynna' (Desert Tale)). The implication appears to be that the Aboriginal people and the swans are one.