1. Sleep tempted me and did not cease
Until I bowed my head to it

2. I closed my eyelids so they opened
The gate of dreams and obsessions

3. I saw as if I were in a place
Where there was nothing but spirits

4. I stood far away looking
I glimpsed three figures

5. A child frolicking in his teens
And a young man in his twenties

6. And the third an old man nearing
His end with a frail body

7. The first approached me
Like a bird taking wing

8. I felt as if I trembled
As if his steps were on my heart

9. My soul, what is this unease
He has no spear or arrows with him

10. Why this fear and anxiety
When people love the child most

11. And the child spoke to me
In effortless words

12. He joked and caressed me
As if I were someone he knew

13. Why are you withdrawn like a pillar
Come, let's play in the shade of the trees

14. Shake the branches and poles
And protect the fruit

15. Or make horses out of reeds
Or paper planes from leaves

16. Swords and forts from wood
And wander and race in the streets

17. Or bring some dark coal
And draw on the doors

18. A dragon in the sea
Or a lion roaming the forest

19. Or a running dog or grazing lamb
Or a river or a hill

20. Or a crowing rooster or a man walking
Or a mare or a carriage

21. Or we’ll mix water and dirt
And build houses and domes

22. Or make dolls from it
Or cook sweets and shish kebabs

23. I imagined the child and his world
And my soul loved his world

24. I wished I were him
Indeed, I became like him

25. I laughed until laughter overwhelmed me
And I fell on my back

26. Doubt awoke in the boy
And he stopped, amazed at my condition

27. And said, “What is with you, old man
By your life, such great madness

28. You do not laugh at me, but at yourself
If only you could remember”

29. And he shied away from me and hid
Like a wave in the river

30. My heart tightened and was disturbed
And my soul quivered in my chest

31. And the second figure approached
Staggering like a drunkard

32. The night descends upon the world
And he wears a cloak of light

33. With eyeliner and the road obscured
Like a ship with no captain

34. Sailing in the sea of darkness
Veiled by the waves

35. What is on the horizon that he stops
And looks at it and smiles

36. Did a face he knew appear?
Or did a tune move him?

37. Or did he see the goddesses of love
Beckoning him like maidens?

38. There is nothing on the vast horizon
Yet it seems there are things there

39. The birds sing to the flowers
And think the birds are wooing them

40. The flowers greet the dawn
And think it's courting them

41. I looked at him on land
Wishing he would sail the sea

42. I looked at him at sea
Wishing he would reach the shore

43. He sighs at the slowness of fate
While fate moves him in leaps

44. He sleeps to dream of dawn
While dawn lights his way

45. He asks for the wine cup
And people ask him about it

46. At night and at first light
While the wine and cup are within him

47. I was patient and kept silent
Until the shadow came near the shade

48. I gestured, “Who are you?”
He replied, “I am that child.”

49. And he left like a moving shadow
And I hoped he would not leave

50. So I spoke to myself again
And my self was amazed at my self

51. The sun declines on the horizon
Like a weary fading soul

52. Submerged by the waves of dusk
Veiled behind the waves

53. And the black clouds gather
Remaining in the sky in layers

54. And the night grows long and drives away
The land like one vanished in a cave

55. And there is an old man in the desert
Like a boat in the sea

56. Tired of reconciling with the water
And losing the way to shore

57. He walks slowly and carefully
Yet he walks like

58. A lamb driven to slaughter
By the staff of an oppressor

59. Old man, why do you not stop
You have bloodied your feet with running

60. He replied in a trembling voice
The earth moves on the earth

61. Old man, slow down, for the moon
Will light the way for you to find

62. He answered, and dawn follows him
But it will shine for those after me

63. Does a broken branch tossed
By the wind enjoy seeing in the moonlight

64. What it had on the roads?
A dead man feels no joy in the burial ground

65. From fragrant colorful flowers
A light that does not shine in the soul

66. Is like a mist in the ear of stone
The planets and shooting stars did not slip away from me

67. But my love slipped away
No thorns filled my path

68. The thorns are in my heart
Old man, your words hurt me

69. And planted pains in my soul
Who are you? He replied, I am you

70. I am your being walking ahead of you
How I search among the planets

71. And dig in the earth for myself
My dreams bury my dreams

72. Some of me is buried in some of me
I did not see myself yesterday

73. In a glass panel or water
But my soul appeared in my soul

74. It is the seer and the seen