Fragment 19

 

I learned to read and write
for my misfortune

What did the text say
scribbled in the forgotten tongue
the accursed language?

Only the escapee can decipher it

Hold out your hand to me, my forbidden brother
I don't have your courage
because I am still afraid for my own

I am afraid I'll find near you
only a mineral landscape
without the caress of a lover
or the prodigious fruits of the vine

I have trouble leaving
what harms me
trouble rising up against evil

Brother
hold out your hand
not to draw me nearer
with your legendary violence
but to offer me the key
that you still have to make

You
you are free now

Disengaged from knowing
and from feeling

From battle
and display

From truth
and error

From the justice of men and gods

Disengaged even from love
and the menagerie of desire

You eat little
and hardly drink

You no longer fear questioning eyes

Appeasement means nothing to you

You no longer wait for evening's music
and dawn's
rarely kept promises

Dreams surprise you
on your cot
you move with or without wings

A cool corner
behind a door
on a bench
every place is the place
where life's premonitions come to you—
that one does not have to live
to be complete

Who would have thought to teach you
to convince you
you who have eschewed convincing
and speak only
for the facetious reptiles in your head

Who could hold it against you
you who have renounced everything

 

 

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