While I was watching a movie, Within the Whirlwind, I kept on hear the title character recite this poem whenever she is struggling with hardship which is everyday.
By the way, the movie is based on true events in the infamous Gulag labor camp.
Somebody gave me this body; what do I do with it now?
It's a very remarkable body, and nobody's body but mine.
I'm alive and I breathe, I'm strong and tall
Won't somebody tell me who to thank for it all?
I'm the gardener and the flower, too
And in this prison of a world I'm not alone.
When I move, when I breathe, I leave my mark
On the everlasting window pane that keeps out the dark.
It's the mark of myself! And that mark will remain
On the cold transparence of that window pane.
Life beyond the glass may darken, day to day
But my mark on that window pane will never go away.
by Osip Mandel'štam.
