MARGARET ATWOOD

"Variation On The Word Sleep"

____________________

I would like to watch you sleeping,

which may not happen.

I would like to watch you,

sleeping. I would like to sleep

with you, to enter

your sleep as its smooth dark wave

slides over my head

and walk with you through that lucent

wavering forest of bluegreen leaves

with its watery sun & three moons

towards the cave where you must descend,

towards your worst fear

I would like to give you the silver

branch, the small white flower, the one

word that will protect you

from the grief at the center

of your dream, from the grief

at the center I would like to follow

you up the long stairway

again & become

the boat that would row you back

carefully, a flame

in two cupped hands

to where your body lies

beside me, and as you enter

it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air

that inhabits you for a moment

only. I would like to be that unnoticed

& that necessary.

RAINER MARIA RILKE

"To Say For Going To Sleep"

____________________

I would like to sing someone to sleep,

by someone to sit and be,

I would like to rock you and croon you to sleep

and attend you in slumber and out.

I would like to be the only one in the house

who would know: The night was cold.

And you would like to hearken within and without

to you, to the world, to the woods,—

The clocks call striking to each other,

and one sees to the bottom of time.

And below a strange man passes yet

and rouses a strange dog.

Behind that comes stillness. I have laid

my eyes upon you wide;

they hold you gently and let you go

when something stirs in the dark.

Translated by M.D. Hester Norton