In the course of a day, we shall meet one another.
But, in one day, things spring up-
they sell grapes in the street,
tomatoes change their skin,
the young girl you fancied
did not come back to the office.
They changed the postman suddenly.
The letters now are not the same.
A few golden leaves and it’s changed;
this tree is now rich.
Who would have said that the earth
with its ancient skin would change so much?
It has more volcanoes than yesterday,
the sky has new clouds,
the rivers are flowing differently.
Besides, so much has come into being!
I have inaugurated hundreds
of highways and buildings,
delicate, clean bridges
like ships or violins.
And so, when I greet you
and kiss your flowering mouth,
our kisses are other kisses,
our mouths are new mouths.
Joy, my love, joy in all things,
what falls and what flourishes.
Joy in today and yesterday,
the day before and tomorrow.
Joy in bread and stone,
in fire and in rain.
In what changes, is born, grows,
consumes itself, and becomes a kiss again.
Joy in the air we have,
and in what we have of earth.
When our life has dried up,
only the roots remain to us,
and the wind is cold like hate.
Then let us change our skin,
our nails, our blood, our gazing;
you kiss me and I go out
to sell light on the roads.
Joy in the night and the day,
and the four stations of the soul.
~
From "A New Decade Poems 1958-1967"
21 июн 2024
