Nike Who Hesitates by Zbigniew Herbert

Nike Who Hesitates

Nike is most beautiful at the moment

when she hesitates

her right hand beautiful as a command

rests against the air

but her wings tremble

For she sees

a solitary youth

he goes down the long tracks

of a war chariot

on a gray road in a gray landscape

of rocks and scattered juniper bushes

that youth will perish soon

right now the scale containing his fate

abruptly falls

toward the earth

Nike would terribly like

to go up

and kiss him on the forehead

but she is afraid

that he who has never known

the sweetness of caresses

having tasted it

might run off like the others

during the battle

Thus Nike hesitates

and at last decides

to remain in the position

which sculptors taught her

being mightily ashamed of that flash of emotion

she understands

that tomorrow at dawn

this boy must be found

with an open breast

closed eyes

and the acid obol of his country

under his numb tongue