Translated by Ronnie Apter and Mark Herman

Each pang spreads oblivion further
like a charred ring
widening a limed clearing
without eradicating the trace of guilt.
Each pang confronts the tab
more deafened by the clamor
of the years. I am, however, not insensitive. I hear
the tolling and my mirror
shatters at each shriek. I feel the memories like a slab
refuting any promise of a society rebuilt
on reason. Whence spurts
the fire re-enacting the disaster
but from the pit of man and his star,
Leviathan anointed without mercy?