So Little

I said so little.
Days were short.

Short days.
Short nights.
Short years.

I said so little.
I couldn't keep up.

My heart grew weary
From joy,
Despair,
Ardor,
Hope.

The jaws of Leviathan
Were closing upon me.

Naked, I lay on the shores
Of desert islands.

The white whale of the world
Hauled me down to its pit.

And now I don't know
What in all that was real.



Berkeley, 1969
by Czeslaw Milosz
from "The Collected Poems 1931-1987", 1988
Transl. by Czeslaw Milosz and Lillian Vallee