The Ship of Mirrors
The ship of mirrors
doesn’t sail, it gallops
Its sea is a forest
serving as level plane
At dusk its flanks
mirror the sun and moon
That’s why time loves
to lie down with it
Shipowners don’t like
its clear and bright route
(To someone in motion
it looks stationary)
When it reaches the city
no wharf gives it shelter
Its bilge brings nothing
it departs with nothing
Voices and heavy air
are all it transports
And a species of door
in its mirrored mast
Its ten thousand captains
all have the same face
The same dark belt
the same rank and office
When one man revolts
there are ten thousand mutineers
(The way objects are reflected
in the eyes of a fly)
And when one of them ascends
and his body climbs the masts
and he scans the ocean depths
The whole ship gallops
(like the stars in space)
From the world’s beginning
to the world’s end
(Translated by Richard Zenith)
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