just when you thought
you had it all
figured out
everything changes
life
you say
can’t be anything
else

I don’t love her anymore
So
Why should I walk
Nights
By the tavern
Where ı drank
Every night
Thinking of her?

translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat

You cannot do this to them, these are my people;
I am not speaking of poetry, I am not speaking of art.
you cannot do this to them, these are my people.
you cannot hack away the horizon in front of their eyes.

the tomb, articulate, will record your doing;
I will record it also, this is not art.
this is a kind of science, a kind of hobby,
a kind of personal vice like coin collecting.

it has something to do with horses
and signet rings and school trophies;
it has something to do with the pride of the lions;
it has something to do with good food and music,
and something to do with power and dancing.
you cannot do this to them, these are my people.

I live my life in growing orbits
which move out over the things of the world.
Perhaps I can never achieve the last,
but that will be my attempt.

I am circling around God, around the ancient town,
and I have been circling for a thousand years,
and I still don’t know if I am a falcon, or a storm,
or a great song.

translated by Robert Bly

Imperceptible
It withers in the world
This flower-like human heart.

translated by Kenneth Rexroth

“No one knows in which shell the priceless pearl does hide.”

translated by Thomas Rain Crowe

they do not mix
ever
but especially at midnight
just as the light goes out on the Empire State Building
and your worn old heart

Waiting beside a friend’s coffin
I was afraid of catching your eyes,
Of seeing the painful trembling of your lips
Which I have kissed in some room only yesterday.

I felt guilty, waiting erect
Beside the deceased
One by one my friends are dead and gone
Leaving behind them an age of grief.

Yesterday I gave you a rose, you were happy
Now I put a rose on this coffin
Side by side, strange and absurd
They flapped their wings and flew away.

Waiting beside a friend’s coffin
You and I sat through the whole night
Recalling what our generation lived through
One by one, a child plucked
all the roses in us.