Lazarus

don't come forth from the grave
resurrection won't do a thing for you
a moment's glory
and then
the same old routine
don't do it old friend don't do it

pride and blood and greed
the tyranny of sexual desire
the way women make you suffer

the enigma of time
the contradictions of space

think it over Lazarus think it over

don't you remember the way it was?
how you blew up at every little thing
and cursed everybody in sight?
everything got under your skin
you couldn't stand it anymore
you even despised your own shadow

your memory's going old friend your memory's going

your heart was a rubbish heap
-that's what you wrote-I'm quoting now-
there was nothing left of your soul

then why come back to Dante's inferno?

why play the comedy again?
some divine comedy-some joke!
it's only fireworks –illusions-
bait for catching greedy little mice-
a fatal blunder!

you don't know how well off you are
you have everything you need in your grave
relax take it easy down there

hello-hello-are you listening to me?

who wouldn't prefer
the earth's embrace
to a gloomy whore's caresses

nobody in his right mind
unless he's in league with the devil

keep on sleeping old friend keep on sleeping
free of the petty doubts that haunted you
lord and master of your own coffin
in the stillness of perfect night
free as a bird
as if you'd never walked among the living

whatever you do don't rise up from the grave
why should you be nervous

like the poet once said
you have your whole death in front of you

translated by Edith Grossman
traducido por Edith Grossman

en: Antipoems: New and Selected (edited by David Unger), New York, New Directions, 1985.