Robert Desnos, J’AI TANT RÊVÉ DE TOI translated by Mary Ann Caws
I'VE DREAMT OF YOU SO OFTEN
I've dreamt of you so often that you become unreal.
Is there still time to reach your living body and kiss on your mouth the
birth of the voice so dear to me?
I've dreamt of you so often that my arms used to embracing your shadow
and only crossing on my own chest might not find your body's shape.
And before the real appearance of what has haunted and ruled me for so
many days and years, I'd surely become a shadow.
Oh the shifts of feeling.
I've dreamt of you so often that it is surely no longer time for me to wake.
I'm sleeping standing, my body prey to all appearances of life and
love and you, who alone count for me today, I could no more touch
your forehead and lips than any other lips and forehead.
I've dreamt of you so often, so often walked, spoken, slept with your spirit
that perhaps I can only be a spirit among the spirits and hundred
times more shadow than the shadow who saunters and will gladly
saunter over the sundial of your life.
World Poetry Review 