Still Life

Candle by candle, shimmer by shimmer, shine by shine.

And this here, among them: an eye,

unpaired and shut,

that late eyelashed, that broke,

without being evening.

Before the strange, whose guest you are here:

the lightless thistle,

with which darkness provides for its own,

from afar,

thus unforgotten to remain.

And this too, unheard from amidst pigeons:

the mouth,

stony and obstinate in stone,

called by the sea,

that its ice the years uprolls.

Paul Celan