IT MAY BE by MAX JACOB

 

     eva hesse, untitled

          IT MAY BE

        
          It may be that a strange dream

          Seized you tonight,

          You thought you saw an angel

          And it was your mirror.


          In her flight Eleonore

          Undid her long hair

          To rob the dawn

          Of the sweet object of my desire.


          You should think no longer

          Of some faithful husband.

          I am the lover, I have wings

          I will teach you to fly.


          May the muse of falseness

          Bring to the end of your fingers

          That scorn which is but a dream

          Of the shepherd prouder than a king.



                             --- Max Jacob (1876-1944)
                            
                            tr by Wallace Fowlie, 1955



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