Insomnia

Insomnia, impalpable Creaturel
Is all your love in your head
That you come and are ravished to see
Beneath your evil eye man gnaw
His sheets and twist himself with spleen,
Beneath your black diamond eye?

Tell me: why, during the sleepless night,
Rainy like a Sunday,
Do you come to lick us like a dog?
Hope or Regret that keeps watch,
Why, in our throbbing ear
Do you speak low... and say nothing?

Why to our parched throat
Do you always tilt your empty cup
And leave us stretching our neck,
Tantaluses, thirsters for chimeras-
Amorous philter or bitter dregs,
Cool dew or melted lead!

Insomnia, aren't you beautiful?...
Well, why, lascivious virgin,
Do you squeeze us between your knees?
Why do you moan on our lips,
Why do you unmake our bed,
And. . . not go to bed with us?

Why, impure night-blooming beauty,
That black mask on your face?...
To illl the golden dreams with intrigue? ...
Aren't you love in space,
The breath of Messaline weary
But still not satisfied?

Insomnia, are you Hysteria? ...
Are you the barrel organ
Which grinds out the hosanna of the elect? ...
Or aren't you the eternal plectrum
On the nerves of the damned-of-Ietters
Scraping out their verses-which only they have read?

Insomnia, are you the troubled donkey
Of Buridan-or the firefly
Of hell? -Your kiss of fire
Leaves a chilled taste of red-hot iron ...
Oh, come perch in my hovel! ...
We will sleep together a while.