From 'Poem of the End'

          And--the embankment. Still I embrace
          The water like a solid thickness.
          The gardens of Semiramis,
          The hanging ones: your likeness.
          I hug the water's steely bar,
          The colour of corpses, ashen,
          Like singers hugging a music score
          Or blind men grasping
          A railing?..Won't you give back? Not if I first
          Bend down? Then will you hear me?
          I clutch the assuageress of all thirst
          As rain-gutters are clutched, sheerly,
          By sleepwalkers...
                            No river spawned
          This chill--I was born a Naiad!
          To clutch the river like the hand
          When one's lover is beside
          One, and faithful...They're faithful, the dead.
          Yes, but we can't all lie in boxes...
          Death's on my left. On my right side,
          You. My right side is like a corpse's.
          A burst of astounding light stands still.
          A laugh like a cheap tambourine.
          'You and I we ought to...
                                   (Chill.)
          Are we going to be strong, then?'
                   1924
                   Translated by David McDuff, 1987
                   See bibliography for full citation