Word for/ Word

Tom Hibbard (translator)

The Just Nights

With a wind more strong
A light less obscure
We must find the stopping place
Where the night will say “Pass”
And we will know that it is true
When the water glass fades

O earth become tender!
O branch where my joy ripens!
The mouth of the sky is white
That which listens, there, it is you
My downfall, my love, my ruin


--Rene Char (1949)