1. I wander all night in my vision,

Stepping with light feet, swiftly and noiselessly step- ping and stopping.

Bending with open eyes over the shut eyes of sleepers.

Wandering and confused, lost to myself, ill-assorted, contradictory.

Pausing, gazing, bending, and stopping.

2. How solemn they look there, stretched and still ! How quiet they breathe, the little children in their cradles !

3. The wretched features of ennuyes, the white features of corpses, the livid faces of drunkards, the sick- gray faces of onanists.

The gashed bodies on battle-fields, the insane in their strong-doored rooms, the sacred idiots, the new-born emerging from gates, and the dying emerging from gates,

The night pervades them and infolds them.

4. The married couple sleep calmly in their bed — he with his palm on the hip of the wife, and she with her palm on the hip of the husband,

(426)