Paul Celan
And the too much of my speaking:heaped up round the littlecrystal dressed in the style of your silence. — Paul Celan, from “Below,” Poetry Magazine December 1971
And the too much of my speaking:heaped up round the littlecrystal dressed in the style of your silence. — Paul Celan, from “Below,” Poetry Magazine December 1971
Desire turns us into ghosts. — Octavio Paz, from “A Draft of Shadows,” The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz: 1957-1987 (New Directions, 1987)
I spell out, not words, but stars : — Octavio Paz, “On the Wing(2),” A Tree Within (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1988)
Trees heavy with birds holdthe afternoon up with their hands. — Octavio Paz, from “THE TOMB Of AMIR KHUSRU,” A Tale of Two Gardens (NewDirections, 1997)
What is returning?Nearly nothing, but it could be a snowflake — Paul Celan, “Questions & Answers,” Romanian Poems (Green Integer, 2003)
[The curve of your eyes] La courbe de tes yeux fait le tour de mon coeur,Un rond de danse et de douceur,Auréole du temps, berceau nocturne et sûr,Et si je ne sais plus tout ce que j’ai vécuC’est que tes yeux ne m’ont pas toujours vu. Feuilles de jour et mousse de rosée,Roseaux du vent,… Continue reading Paul Éluard
What is returning?Nearly nothing, but it could be a snowflake — Paul Celan, “Questions & Answers,” Romanian Poems (Green Integer, 2003)
Always For the First Time Always for the first timeHardly do I know you by sightYou return at some hour of the night to a house at an angle to my windowA wholly imaginary houseIt is there from one second to the nextIn the inviolate darknessI anticipate once more the fascinating rift occurringThe one and… Continue reading André Breton
Yes, me, I prefer the hourglass so you can smash it whenI tell you of eternity’s lie — Paul Celan, “[Blinded by giant leaps],” Romanian Poems (Green Integer, 2003)
How you die out in me: down to the lastworn-outknot of breathyou’re there, with asplinterof life. ― Paul Celan, Poems of Paul Celan. (Anvil Press Poetry November 9, 1995) Originally published 1972.