Let's not take upon ourselves
Let's not take upon ourselves
The burdens of Heaven;
Let's not shield the small birds
Groping their way along the window,
Nor shelter emaciated squirrels
Begging with huge eyes
Upon leafless branches.

Let's not spread our souls like carpets,
For so many souls who wander the world,
Because
If we wither under their torment,
No one could ever
Break us free from our spells.

Without fault, God
Carries out the Law.
In His Grace
He takes care of us all.
Under sheets of ice enclosing the earth like a coat,
His unseen Hand provides
For the birds in flight
In winter.

The Oldest of the Old
The oldest of old people
And newly born infants
Share equally
The same vague look.

Where do they walk
A path together?
And where do they meet?
In which all-glorious place?

The figure, the colors, the voice,
Sift one after another later on,
According to how the winds blow in Eternity,
According to how the claws of time scrape.

God has promised
And lets you choose
Both shortcomings and gifts
From the ancestors' garden:
The fretting, the vanity,
The arrogance, the cowardice,
The bravery, the joy.

In your small chest you gather everything
And grow up with it, straighter or more twisted,
Only to give it back
When the hour comes
On the high, clay threshold.

Why then the dying
Disgusts us so deeply?

Melt your heart, Stone,
And you Sky take pity
In the presence of this very short journey;
You who are almost immortal
Like the Gods,
Hoard all the world's seeds
In vast granaries
And devotedly save
The sacred wine of living
In holy ewers.

Study well your words, Soul,
Because all things scatter, blown in the wind;
Raise for yourself, from words, a lasting statue,
Build wisely a solid foundation,
A dam against dissonant, frantic tremors,
That the turbid waters
May not raze your creation
From the earth's face.

Reconciliation
Both birds and shadows
Cross over our skies,
Scouring, they waylay our path.

Give me your hand, friend,
I have a lot to pay you back for;
Wipe off your sweat,
Drop your mask,
And look --
I've crammed the barns,
My casks are filled,
The grape boils on the vine,
Heavenly, the tree
Weaves its silks.

Choose!
Take all if you wish!
Your time is short and it lures you;
Be greedy,
Get drunk with the sun,
With words and with wine;
Leave only the thought,
Leave only the longing,
To stay a little longer
And keep me company;
Now the thought,
Then the longing;
Now the bird
And the shadow;
Then the moment
And the cloud.

The End of the World
It seems that the end of the world is nearing
When tens of thousands of birds
Suddenly fall from the sky,
The silky burden covers the plains
Like a downy carpet
A funereal jewel.

Armies of freckled and shaggy insects
Quickly invade young trees,
Driving tunnels through soft barks to the cores,
Hurried mandibles penetrate live flesh;
Exhausted forests wither and die.

People of means copy their own likeness,
Chimeras they build from the dust -
Children of women unborn,
Lie in white test tubes,
Impatiently, in wait.