And what if after so much history, we succumb,
not to eternity,
but to those simple things, like being
at home, or starting to brood!
What if we discover later
all of a sudden, that we are living
to judge by the height of the stars
off a comb and off stains on a handkerchief!
It would be better, really,
if it were all swallowed up, right now!

They’ll say we have a lot
of grief in one eye, and a lot of grief
in the other also, and when they look
a lot of grief in both . . .
So then! . . . Naturally! . . . So! . . . Don’t say a word!

translated by Robert Bly