When I Was With You Song
When I was with you
I said to you:
take off my clothes,
remove my jewels,
lay them down carefully.
To help you
I will raise a foot
I will hold up an arm;
undress me slowly,
take off my shadow.
When I was with you
I said to you,
while my shadow moved
left, then right,
trying to hide.
Song
I have forgotten
what I discovered
because it is so long ago,
where do I sleep?
When I was a child
I thought I could be
between everyone
and the lights of the night.
That is what I thought,
that someone gets
what makes them shine
when they think of it.
That someone only knows
words for ever
and a day, quieter than
the day before.
Song
The joke is
I would have liked to be with someone
who was the beginning and the end for me.
When I am old
I will say what I like about love
like a girl who's not afraid of it.
Because I thought
it wouldn't happen again
that someone could love me.
That's me, put me down somewhere
where something is about to begin
and I will start.
Is there something
I mustn't joke about here
but only outside?
But if you're with me
you don't need to laugh at it
or only after you've turned it into a song
And sung it bakwards,
from the end to the beginning,
and then laugh as if in a gale.
At the Seaside
The girl walks to the sea
and at the seaside a man
asks: are you the girl
I was looking for?
She shakes her head,
holds out an open hand
on which he puts a ring
she will never lose for long.
He tells her how
she can recognize him
if she sees him again: he will
choose the other hand.
_______________
Nachoem M. Wijnberg
translated by David Colmer
NYRB 2022
