This barbaric capital, whereon monsters writhe,
soldered together by the might of claw and tooth,
in a mad whirl of blood, of fiery cries, of
wounds, and of jaws that bite and bite again,
This was myself before you were mine, you who are
new and old, and who, from the depths of your
eternity, came to me with passion and kindness in
your hands.
I feel the same deep, deep things sleeping in you
as in me, and our thirst for remembrance drink up
the echo in which our pasts answer each to each.
Our eyes must have wept at the same hours,
without our knowing, during childhood, have had
the same terrors, the same happinesses, the same
flashes of trust;
For I am bound to you by the unknown that watched
me of old down the avenues through which my
adventurous life passed; and, indeed, if I had
looked more closely, I might have seen, long ago,
within its eyes your own eyes open.