Two Monkeys by Brueghel

(translation.by Magnus Kryski) 

I keep dreaming of my graduation exam:
in a window sit two chained monkeys,
beyond the window floats the sky,
and the sea splashes. 

I am taking an exam on the history of mankind:
I stammer and flounder. 

One monkey, eyes fixed upon me, listens ironically,
the other seems to be dozing--
and when silence follows a question,
he prompts me
with a soft jingling of the chain. 

Wislawa Szymborska 

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Two Monkeys (1562)

Oil on canvas, 8 in. x 9 in. Dahlem Museum, Berlin.