THE OTHER CARE

Not everything
without which
Our son couldn't do was ready
For which reason I sometimes worried
For which my nights were sleepless,
'N for which I sometimes was sad
And how else ? I am father:
Who says otherwise lies.

But, if not today,tomorrow,someday,
We shall have all necessity-
wood,bowl,stove,
dresses,nappies.....

'Tis something else agitates my mind.
It is other care shakes my inside:
That money cannot buy all.

This truth holds me entrapped
And on me is heaped the question
That when our son matures
Aside from dresses, milk and bread,
Will I from this our age
Give him that as well
That will make him a man?
-Pen'o Penev

translated by me in 1988 while I was rounding off my study in Sofia, Bulgaria and looking forward to the birth of my son.