I DREAMED IN THE CITIES AT NIGHT Poem by Remco Campert

I dreamed in the cities at night
in Paris I prowled on the boulevards
looking for francs on the tarmac
the bistros lured
with their black coffee and hard-boiled eggs
I could wait there until morning
in my basketball shoes
writing listening and drinking
the first rosy streaks of sky the first workers
on early bikes the first metro
with yellow human faces and nape hair still wet
the first newspaper at first light
in Paris I dreamed I could speak
at Dupont they were shooting a film
with Juliette Gréco and a man I didn't see
the cities at night
are the people's lovers
with their tender luminous hands
the cities at night
caress the shoulders and hair of the people
I have seen it I have felt it
I have listened to the cities
as they lay down at night
by their rivers and trees
I have talked to the people
in the cafes and cinemas of their cities
at night and in the evening light
I have smoked their Turkish tobacco
American and Algerian too
I have drunk and laughed
kissed and wept with them
in their cities at night
if they were tired and high-spirited or downcast
I dreamed I was only a tongue
only teeth only lips
I dreamed I was only words
and comforting gestures
I walked round the cities at night
found the world with each footstep
found joy in the faces of people
found grief in the breath of their words
I had dreams in plenty I dreamed
at six in the morning
my head on a table
my arms round my head
my friends around me
I dreamed with the people
I dreamed with the world
I dreamed in the cities at night.