May the world not die of bread or a lost Messiah or the oil-smeared desert or a fire-washed sky, but ripen into childhood — the heart’s crocodiles turned cinnamon shops and love and love ∞.
Bruno Schulz was a Polish writer and visual artist, regarded as one of the great writers of his century. His collection of stories, *Sklepy cynamonowe* (Cinnamon Shops), known in English translation as *The Street of Crocodiles*, was published in 1934.
During the German occupation of Drohobycz, Poland, Schulz’s life was temporarily spared by SS officer Felix Landau, who admired Schulz’s artistic talent. Landau brought him into his home to paint murals of Grimm’s fairytales on the walls of his son’s nursery.
The phrase “ripen into childhood” is my translation of Schulz’s line, *dojrzeć do dzieciństwa*.
https://www.texasobserver.org/a-prayer-for-brody-rhys-bruno-schilz/
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