Memorial Candle
I so love the flame
That I kiss it,
I stretch out my hand to it
And wash my face in it.
Tender spirits live
In its flower bud,
A circle of delicate forces
Rings around it.
This is their home,
Their shell, their joy.
Anything else would make
Too crude a place for them.
I burned my hair,
Singed my eyelashes,
I thought you were there,
Trembling in the flame.
Maybe you are trying
To whisper a small word of light to me.
The low flame trembles,
But in me there is only darkness.
*
Reason quickly leaps
Through the small window that opens to the stars.
Where are you going, my mind, my little mouse?
A sad black cat is guarding us.
O reason, my little one! Don’t even try!
You will never make it past the curtain of darkness.
You went strolling around – now off to your little burrow.
A crumb of time and a crust of space await you there,
And a bitten slice of memory – so here, gnaw on that all night.
Translated by Stephanie Sandler
Page(s) 212
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