Robert Desnos, J’AI TANT RÊVÉ DE TOI translated by Laura Marris
(to the mystery girl, 1926)
I DREAMED OF YOU SO MUCH
I dreamed of you so much that you became unreal.
Is there still time to grasp your living body to kiss that lollipop mouth the
birthplace of the voice I treasure?
I dreamed of you so much my arms got used to crossing over my chest to
clutch at your shadow—perhaps they won’t unbend to accommodate
your body’s shape.
Faced with the true presence of what’s haunted and ruled me for days,
years, I’d probably become a shade.
O balances of feeling.
I dreamed of you so much there’s no time left for waking. I’m asleep on
my feet, my body blasted with every facet of life and love, and you—
the only one who exists for me now—I could no more touch your
brow and your lips than the first lips that ever lipped and the first
brow that ever browed.
I dreamed of you so much, walked, talked, slept with your ghost so much
that maybe there’s nothing left for me, and yet, why not be a ghost
among ghosts, a hundred times shadowier than the shade who
strolls and keeps strolling forever, cheerfully, around the sundial of
your life.
World Poetry Review 