You Who Never Arrived

You who never arrivedin my arms,

Beloved, who were lostfrom the start,

I don't even know what songswould please you.

I have given up tryingto recognize you in the surging wave of the nextmoment.

All the immenseimages in me— the far-off, deeply-felt landscape,
cities, towers, and bridges, and unsuspectedturns in the path,
and those powerful lands that were oncepulsing with the life of the gods-all rise within me to meanyou, who forever elude me.

You,

Beloved, who are allthe gardens I have ever gazed at,
longing.

An open windowin a country house—, and you almoststepped out, pensive, to meet me.

Streets that I chanced upon,—you had just walked down them and vanished.

And sometimes, in a shop, the mirrorswere still dizzy with your presence and, startled,
gave back my too-sudden image.

Who knows?
perhaps the same bird echoed through both of usyesterday, separate, in the evening…Translated by Stephen Mitchell