I dreamed I already loved you. <br />I dreamed I already killed you. <br /> <br />But you rose again; another form, but you, <br />a girl on the little ball of the earth, <br />naive simplicity, curve-necked <br />on that early canvas of Picasso, <br />and prayed to me with your ribs: <br />'Love me, ' as though you said, 'Don't push me off.' <br /> <br />I'm that played-out, grown-up acrobat, <br />hunchbacked with senseless muscles, <br />who knows that advice is a lie, <br />that sooner or later there's falling. <br /> <br />I'm too scared to say: 'I love you, ' <br />because I'd be saying: 'I'll kill you.' <br /> <br />For in the depths of a face I can see through <br />I see the faces-can't count them- <br />that, right on the spot, or maybe <br />not right away, I tortured to death. <br /> <br />You're pale from the mortal balance. You say: <br />'I know everything; I was all of them. <br />I know you've already loved me. <br />I know you've already killed me. <br />But I won't spin the globe backwards: <br />Love again, and then kill again.' <br /> <br />Lord, you're young. Stop your globe. <br />I'm tired of killing. I'm not a damn thing but old. <br /> <br />You move the earth beneath your little feet, <br />you fall, 'Love me.' <br />It's only in those eyes, so similar, you say: <br />'This time don't kill me! ' <br /> <br /> <br />1967 <br />Translated by James Dickey with Anthony Kahn (revised)<br /><br />Yevgeny Yevtushenko<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-dreamed-i-already/
