4

4

Translated by Ron Padgett.

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It’s 4 in the morning
I get up fully dressed
In my hand a little bar of soap
Someone I love sent me
I go to wash up
I emerge from the hole we sleep in
I feel terrific
And happy to be able to wash up for the first time in three days
Then all clean I go get a shave
After that I blend in sky-blue with my blue uniform until night falls and it’s a very sweet pleasure
To say no more about anything I do it’s an invisible being doing it
And buttoned up and all blue now blended into the sky I disappear
 
(translated from the French by Ron Padgett)

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