Tell me, how can you distinguish
The male from the female hare?
Is it that the male sits on its haunches
And that the female has moist eyes?
Is it that the buck goes hoppity-skip
And the doe's eyes are misted and glazed
Or that he tucks his legs when sitting
And that she dims her gaze when he is near?
For the male has a lilting, scampering gait,
And the female's eyes become wild:
And the male's feet strike and kick
When she is fearful and at the edge of tears
But when Jack and Jill run together
How much alike they seem -
Who can see which is he and which is she
As they bound away side by side?
And when two hares are fighting, it is clear
A third, whether he or she, will refrain;
Unless perhaps in a shared innocence
That presages peace and tranquility.
Alone in likeness they have become an illusion
In fighting and pairing they become a dream
In the possibility of the third way a mirage
Nothing distinguished - impermanent, insubstantial
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem