I recalled on a recent occasion A refrain both taunting and smart If your heart seeks another heart Your heart alone is that heart And I become two Out of being alone I would like to live in a city in some nook I have read in a book That it's always night in the city But that only seems to be so And I want to escape from myself I want the unknown of the evening land To be like an eagle that would not have Looked at the sun That can only be looked at by eagles But the dark night maybe the bilious moon But the evening owls Screech in the dark But that only seems to be so Which is why I am two Who knows what will be The great one will always The vile one will always Death will always be dying It's not worth trying To poke at fate Though we can and do Know what will be It's not worth trying to poke at fate Better live on and savor the cool of the evenings Lest we fall asleep dreaming of those without hope I only had one heart made of flesh Which I wanted to carry To wear as a votive But then silver I saw Silver under the mournful gaze Of Our Ladies And I also saw Hearts of gold Next to the Sacred Hearts of marble The Sacred Hearts of plaster In the cathedrals And I was all ashamed And I hid out of sight my heart of flesh My living heart Bleeding I left the cathedral Looking with dread At the hearts of gold or of silver gleaming Ashamed with my heart In the soil I hid it Far from itinerant monks And from churches Bring there black iris Black iris and an armful Of oleander
translated by Shimon Edelman <se37@cornell.edu>