You see, here everything has already happened.
Men are trying
to relax. The day has open
eyes and the sun is an instant.
It keeps everybody quiet.
As if I really didn't exist.

See, you are also distant
and intricate. Irritating, while
you sign your pact. As if you
didn't see me, as if I
were the night, exact and malignant,
introvert, like the nail of the cat.

See, all words live by now
a notice to quit, as if
I really didn't exist, as if
we never made sense
and somebody had always
tried to count us

(I suddenly think
that if I managed to emerge
I'd become throbbing.
Try to think of it. You'd have
two hearts. Like your mother
before you were born).

Translated by Tania Calcinaro