AustLit

English translation of the title: Granddad and Granny

English translation of first line: repatriation parted grandad from granny

The poem describes the effect of forced repatriation on an elderly couple, one of whom accepts the move, while the other remains on the 'lost' land. It may refer to the repatriation policies in eastern Poland after World War II, when Poles living in what had been Polish territory but was now in the Soviet Ukraine were moved into newly Polish territory (in what had been Germany prior to the war). In this poem the 'dziadek' (grandad) loses his 'horyzont' (horizon) without his wife and their former land on which she has remained. Perhaps the couple symbolise post-war Poland with its lost lands in the east.