I DREAM I SEE YOUR IMAGE

I dream I see your image indefinitely imposed upon itself

You are seated on the high coral stool

Before your mirror still in its first quarter

Two fingers on the water wing of your comb

And at the same time

You are returning from a trip lingering last in the grotto

Streaming with sparks

You do not know me

You are lying on the bed you wake where you fall asleep

You wake where you fell asleep or elsewhere

You are naked the elderberry still bounces

A thousand elderberries buzz above you

So light that at every moment

Unbeknownst to you

Your breath your blood saved from the air’s mad juggling

You cross the street the cars that rush at you turn to a shadow

And the same

Child

Caught in the bellows of spangles

You are skipping rope

Until atop the unseen stairs appears

The sole green butterfly that haunts the Asian peaks

I caress all that you were

In all that you still will be

I hear your countless arms

Whistling tunefully

Snake unique in all the trees

In your arms turns the crystal of the rose of winds

My living fountain of Shiva

--Translated from the French by Mary Ann Caws