I’ve Dreamed of You so Much   (c)

I’ve dreamed of you so much you’re losing your reality.

Is there still time to reach that living body and kiss

onto that mouth the birth of the voice so dear to me?

 

I’ve dreamed of you so much that my arms, accustomed

to being crossed on my breast while hugging your shadow,

would perhaps not bend to the shape of your body.

And, faced with the real appearance

of what has haunted and ruled me for days and years,

I would probably become a shadow.

O sentimental balances.

 

I’ve dreamed of you so much it’s no longer right

for me to awaken. I sleep standing up, my body exposed

to all signs of life and love, and you

the only one who matters to me now, I’d be less able

to touch your face and your lips than the face and the lips

of the first woman who came along.

 

I’ve dreamed of you so much, walked so much, spoken

and lain with your phantom that perhaps nothing more is left me

than to be a phantom among phantoms

and a hundred times more shadow

than the shadow that walks and will joyfully walk

on the sundial of your life.

                                      - Robert Desnos (1900-1945) French

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