Sleep soundly, dear poet

“I don’t like men who leave behind a smoking trail of weeping women.” (Auden)

                 I shall stop weeping

         shall not leave, weeping, a smoking trail

                     so love should not annoy Auden

                        so Joseph can sleep soundly

a genius’s sleep and save the world with his

                rigorous—almost delirious—

                  desperate dedication to the word

Translated by Daniel Weissbort