Night Ray

By Paul Celan

Most brightly of all burned the hair of my evening loved one:

to her I send the coffin of lightest wood.

Waves billow round it as round the bed of our dream in Rome;

it wears a white wig as I do and speaks hoarsely:

it talks as I do when I grant admittance to hearts.

It knows a French song about love, I sang it in autumn

when I stopped as a tourist in Lateland and wrote my letters

     to morning.

A fine boat is that coffin carved in the coppice of feelings.

I too drift in it downbloodstr

eam, younger still than your eye.Now you are young as a bird dropped dead in March snow,now it comes to you, sings you its love song from France.You are light: you will sleep through my spring till it's over.I am lighter:in front of strangers I sing.