Reverse Waterfall (1995), III

 
***

With reason hardly peeping out its fleshly cell
the human was a gaol unguarded once, so that
infinity traversed him freely. Like a mantle
spread among the stars above, unbound he used to offer up himself
but ever he remained a whole, or when the Cosmos filled him over
he remained complete again, forever shining
bright within this undisturbed togetherness.
But reason stirred somewhat and rose, the human
sank, recoiling from the Cosmos, deeply in himself.
Jesus was betrayed to suffer death
whereupon the human shrank away still more.
Having lost his primal, old support
he reeled, increasingly diverging from the centre,
bent in two as though in pain. (He raised his eyes but didn’t see
the Cosmos,
then he looked inside himself but didn’t see his self at all.)
So as to keep his balance
he shoved the heaven’s burden off his shoulders,
leaning down to find support in someone else’s leaning
essence.
Thus,
before the threshold of this new togetherness death found
a sheaf
and not a single stalk.

tr. by Peyo Karpuzov