Perpetuum Mobile Poem by Marin Sorescu

TRANSLATED BY MICHAEL HAMBURGER
Between people's
ideals
and their realization
there is always
a greater drop
than in the highest
of waterfalls.

This potential gradient
can be exploited
rationally,
if we build a sort of
power station above it.

The energy it supplies,
even if we use it only
to light our cigarettes,
is something
anyway;
for while one is smoking
one can very seriously
think up
ideals even crazier.