We present this work in honor of the poet’s 100th birthday.

 

Because I was alone
I want to think of you as alone.
That you didn’t go, that you slept.
That you left me without leaving,
and that you needed me
to be able to be happy.

Anyway, I’ve recovered
my place in the world: you came back,
you became reachable

You give me back the time,
the pain, the ways, happiness,
the voice, the body, the soul,
life, and death, and what lives
beyond death.

You give me back everything
locked up in the appearance
of a woman, your self, the one I love.

You came back little by little, you woke
and weren’t surprised
to find me beside you.

And I could almost see the last step
of the secret you climbed
while sleeping, as you opened
—slowly, quietly—your eyes
inside my eyes that kept
the deathwatch over you.

Translation by Marlon L. Fick