Before the snow came,
there was this tender rim of cloud
along the horizon.
Just the other day.
World's End
At the world's end
on worn-out ground
the one talks of the flowers
adorning Argonne china
in their red pigment is mixed
the gold of old Dutch ducats
dissolved in aqua regia.
How soon the night falls
the other answers
time goes so fast
in this empty country.
Translated from the French by W.S. Merwin
Transparency of the World; Jean Follain
selected and translated by W. S. Merwin,
Copper Canyon Press, 2003, page 81.
In this uncertain time, when so many of the things
I have cared about seem under threat, I find
that the work of this poet, who lived
in other uncertain times,
captures a feeling-tone
very similar to the one
I have today. jhh
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