That's how I was

There was a madman in Vilna, he walked into a synagogue and saw a painter standing on top of a ladder and painting the ceiling. So he said to him 'hold on the brush because I'm taking away the ladder.' That's how I was: I held onto the brush and held myself, did not fall down. That was the remarkable thing.

Abraham Sutzkever, Selected Poetry and Prose, translated from the Yiddish by Barbara and Benjamin Harshav

C'era un pazzo a Vilnius: entrò in una sinagoga e vide che in cima ad una scala c'era un pittore che stava dipingendo il soffitto. Poi gli disse 'reggiti al pennello ché tolgo la scala'. Ecco com'ero: mi sono aggrappato al pennello e mi son tenuto, non sono caduto. Era questa la cosa straordinaria.