PHYSICAL OPTICS IV translated a...

PHYSICAL OPTICS IV

translated according to Iain Galbraith


all things cleave to the wind -- each and each panicle
the leaf's throat the shrub's spread hand
spread against it -- the spears of the hay rack

the spikelets of the feather-grass laid on the outside to dry
grow into it -- veins and the belly of a celestial expanse
too broad for the tree -- it turns on its back

through the fields changes with the light
and crawls on all fours in the spelt
from common gust to the next it damps its voice

and soft-pedals the grass -- on the other hand what is mute
is what remains: its breath held suffers the earth become
what each ...