To Read: To Love Poem by Tomaž Šalamun

As I read you, I swim. Like a bear-bear with paws,
you push me into bliss. You lie on top of me, who
tore me apart. You I fell in love with unto death, first
among the born. It took but a moment and I was your bonfire.

I am safe as never before. You are the ultimate
feeling of fulfillment: to know where longing comes from.
I'm in a soft grave whenever inside you. You cut, you illuminate,
every layer. Time bursts into flame and disappears. I hear hymns

when I watch you. You are strict and demanding, concrete. And I
cannot speak. I know I long for you, hard grey steel. For one of
your touches, I give up everything. Look, the late afternoon sun

is dashing against the walls of the courtyard in Urbino. I have died
for you. I feel you, I use you. Torturer. You uproot and you torch me,
always. And into the places you have destroyed, paradise flows.

Translated by Michael Biggins