We have amazed by our great sufferings, by Pierre Jean Jouve

We have amazed by our great sufferings

The inclination of the indifferent stars

We have stared at the blood of the wound

With an outsider’s eye, in secret we

Have coupled through the false back door,

We have become these iron systems

Which wander distanceless, caterpillar horsemen

Of the last judgement, a vast, dismal boredom

Bears us to your hoofs of consummation

Red Horse black Horse yellow Horse white Horse.

Translated from the French by Keith Bosley, from “99 Poems in Translation,” selected by Harold Pinter, Anthony Astbury and Geoffrey Godbert (Grove Press: 150 pp., $11) Copyright 1994 Reprinted by permission.