To a Young Girl

For Nice

Open your eyes and face your life! Your fate

Must be fulfilled! Expand your horizons!

High bridges across the dead zones

With your lovely girlish hands inaugurate.

On this highroad of life that thrills you

Walk straight ahead, over the hills!

Biting fruits in laughter, drinking at rills!

Kiss those whom destiny brings you!

The farthest star is your dearest friend,

Use your own hands to dig your own grave,

And then, smiling, lie in it, end to end.

With love, let earth’s hands nurture

Out of your body’s grace, slender and naïve,

Up into the light, the stem of a flower.

Translated by Simon Park for