They were
supposed to blossom on Jesus’ head
but they
blossomed here.
Wherever they
blossom they’re in twos:
desolately
flashing that Radiance of the Other.
Is it the blood
in the eyes
of a willing martyr?
Blood is
contagious:
where it’s
reddened, wherever someone’s
warmed and reddened
for, against another,
this radiance of
tears
that hovered
lonely in the sky
will finally
come gushing, shed
for all the
endless longing under Heaven
till someday the
longing eyes
be caught up in
each other; till
Heaven’s and
what’s under Heaven’s
keeping their
distance
mutually end up
mutual:
and what was water-born
be water-minded.
Human human
human
Singly or in
pairs, forming lines or not
at the heart of
the river, the end of the sky
when the autumn
wind arises:
however lean and
long the autumn wind is
that’s how lean
and long your shadow is.
Are you writing
words in the air, or
are words in the
air writing you?
Human human
human –
When endeth the
same? only if
(moans the
autumn wind in the highest heights of height)
only if the
river’s flow reverses, goes back West:
and when will
the river’s flow go West?
Ay! only if you
can write the human human to the full.
--Translated by Lloyd
Haft