Tristan Corbière
Paris by Night
It’s not a city, it’s a world.
– It’s the sea: – dead calm – The Spring tide has felt bound,
With a distant rumbling, to withdraw its sway.
Its waves will return, rolling themselves in their sound –
– Can you hear the crabs of night scratching away. . .
– It’s the dried-up Styx: Rag ’n bone Diogenes,
Lantern in hand, wanders down it; he never squirms
But it’s the black gutter where depraved poets please
To cast their lines, their hollow skulls the cans for worms.
– It’s the wheat-field: Hideous harpies swirl and swoop
On what’s impure, gleaning shreds of lint caked in pus.
The alley cat, on the watch for rats, flees the troop
Of Shit-creek’s sons, harvesters of night’s detritus.
– It’s death: Here lieth the police – And love, upstairs,
Taking a siesta, sucks a heavy arm’s meat
Where an old love-bite’s left its blotch – Love is for pairs –
The hour is solitary – Listen: . . . dreams drag their feet . . .
– It’s life: Listen: the spring water is up for air,
Singing its everlasting song, that seems to slide
Over a sea-god’s slimy head, and his stretched bare
Green limbs on the bed of the Morgue . . . Eyes open wide!
Translated by Christopher Pilling
Page(s) 125
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