Cento from the Diary of Anne Frank

1

Here in the secret annex

Look – how a single candle can define
and yet defy the darkness

2

The reason I’m starting a diary is that I
have no real friend

Neither I nor anyone else,
for that matter, may be interested
in the musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl

It doesn’t matter. I feel like writing.

The young are not afraid of telling the truth.

But more than that, I want to draw out what lies
buried in my heart

shake off everything, vanish
my sorrows, rebirth
courage

3

A new prescription for gunfire nerves:

As the shooting gets louder, make your way
to the nearest wooden staircase.

Run up and down a few times, being sure
to stumble at least once.

With all the scratches, the din of running
and falling, you won't even hear the shooting,
much less worry about it.

Yours truly has put this magic formula to use,
with tremendous success

4

Why is mankind so insane?

Why make enormous planes, bombs,
and pre-fabricate houses for reconstruction?

Why spend millions on the war each day,
and nothing for artists, for the poor?

Why do people starve, with mountains
of food spoiling in other parts of the world?

There is in humanity simply an urge to
destroy, an urge to kill, to murder and

Rage. Until all the world, without
exception, undergoes a transformation,

Wars will be waged, everything that has been
built up, cultivated, and grown will be

Destroyed, disfigured, after which
the world will have to begin over again

5

The world will keep on turning without me

I've reached the point where I hardly care whether I
live or die.

6

Love, what is love? I don’t think you can
put it into words

I love you, with a love so great that it couldn't
keep inside my heart, but had to leap out
and reveal itself in all its magnitude

7

Who has inflicted this upon us?
Who has made us different from all other people?
Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up till now?

Crying may bring relief, as long as you don't
cry alone

I want to go on living even after my death
I don’t want to have lived in vain

8

I realize that this period of my life
has irrevocably come to a close

gone forever

Let’s not talk about it anymore, but if you still
want anything please write

write because I can say what I mean
much better on paper

Paper has more patience than people

Don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty
that still

remains

9

I see 
the world gradually being turned into a wilderness.

I hear
the ever-approaching thunder, which will
destroy us.

I feel
the sufferings of millions and yet,
if I look up into the heavens,

I believe
- not everyone has the gift
of believing in heavenly things -

I believe
in spite of everything

I still believe
that mankind is really, at its heart,
good

10

A single candle

Here, in the secret annex

See
how a single candle
can defy the darkness