Thus you lived your life without regret
Thus you lived your life without regret,
Hands warmed against a kettle caked in soot,
Gaudier than cheap-jack kiddies’ sweets,
The daring trash of sages on the streets,
Dressed in tinsel and torn lace, surrounded
By the stenches of a travelling zoo,
By evening, you’d grown princes, known to few;
At night you’d ask “Why follow me?”, astounded.
Tomorrow the white raven laughs, and where
The noise is loudest of kids’ shouts and curses,
You’ll find in a new town a well to share
And give clean water to your weary horses.
The circus leaves, the posters fade and wash,
The tearaways who raved about your thrills
Will make their different ways in life. Your bells
Will not change the world. Hush, now . . . hush.
How, my girl, could you ever dream to follow?
The rib cage of the circus tent subsides.
Our women age so quickly. Far and wide
They sorrow; there’s not one who does not sorrow.
Ignore the embroidered shawls that seem so rich,
The baubles spangling on the sweaty saddles;
So often were they wronged, their smiles are raddled
Grins that harden on their lips like pitch;
Their cheeks are eaten by cheap rouge, their breasts
Are sucked to rags by babies every year.
I’m leaving you, no need to lie, I can bear
This slap in the face. Forget me, it’s for the best.
If God’s paradise exists, my old
Parrot surely lives there – he who told
Half of Europe’s fortunes, who abused
All mundane authorities, and used
To swear in every language known to man,
Who took his final breath cupped in my hands,
Who pitied no one any more at all,
And I was the only one he called a fool.
Translated by C.J.K. Arkell
Page(s) 168-169
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