Your body is the golden spoon by means of which I eat your soul. I do not seek to find the explanation for this curious sensation which is more visual than tactile. But I am afraid of the army of silver spoons marshaled in array under their commander-in-chief Silver Fork who is about to give the command to march against the golden spoon which I hold desperately in my mouth.

We are preparing ourselves for the horrors of war by viewing an autopsy. A trained nurse depressingly capable sits by a stove reading aloud from the Madonna of the Sleeping Cars while you insist on telling me that for three years the chorus girls have not come to Touggourt. There is a turmoil of passionate red except for my hands which are two drifts of white snow lying upon the cool shells of your breasts. It is snowing and there are people in galoshes and when we wake up it is snowing and there is the sound of the men shovelling the snow off the sidewalks. It is one of those cold grey days when the wise thing for us to do is to go to sleep again like bears in the wintertime.

Embrace me you said but my arms were riveted to the most exacting of walls, embrace me you said but my mouth was sealed with the huge hot fruit of red wax, embrace me you said but my eyes were seared by the severities of two thousand winters — embrace me you said in such a low and feline voice that my eyes began to open like frightened shutters, in such a low and feline voice that my mouth became unsealed like red ice in a bowl of fire, in such a low and feline voice that my chains dropped like silver needles to the floor and my arms were free to encircle the white satin nudity of your voice which I tore into thin strips of music to store away in my heart whose desert had been threatened with vast armies of female laborers marching down dusty roads strewn with the prickly leaves of the cactus plant.

All the sailors are laughing. It is contagious. All the whores are yawning. It is contagious. And all night long we wear ourselves out trying to laugh and yawn at one and the same time.

あなたの体は金の匙。それで我はあなたの心を喰べる。目には見えても触れることの出来ない不思議な感情の説明を求めやうとはすまい。だが私は銀の匙の大軍が司令官銀のフオクの命令で出動準備を整へて、命令一下忽ちに私がいま一生懸命に口にくわへてゐる金の匙を目掛けて襲撃して来るのが恐ろしい。

私達は死体解剖を見ることによつて、戦争の恐怖を想像する。憂欝なまで有能である看護婦はストウブの側に坐る。そして寝台車のマドンナの一節を読んでゐる間あなたは三年間TouggourtにChorus girlsが来なかつたといふことをうるさく私に話してきかせようとする。私の冷たい手がなければ感情的な赤の騒擾が起る。手はあなたの胸の冷たい貝殻の上に置かれいつのまにか白い雪の二つのかたまりである。雪は盛んに降つてゐる。人人はOver-shoesを履いてゐる。私達が目覚めた時雪はやはり降つてゐる。鋪道の雪をとりさる人達のShovelの音がきこゑる。こんな寒い灰色の日に私達の出来る最もかしこい方法は冬どきの熊のやうに再びもぐり込んで眠るのだ。

抱擁して下さいとあなたは云ふ。併し私の腕はしつかりと壁に釘づけにされてゐる。抱擁して下さいとあなたは云ふ。併し私の口は赤い蜜蠍の大きなあつい果物で封じられてゐる。抱擁して下さいとあなたは云ふ。併し私の目は二千の冬の酷しい寒さに凋萎してゐる。――抱擁して下さいとあなたは云ふ。その声は低くあわれつぽいので私の目は物に驚かされたShutter のやうに開き出す。その声は低くあわれつぽいので私の口は火の球の中の赤い氷のやうにとけてしまつた。その声は低くあわれつぽいので私の鎖は銀の針のやうに床に落ち、私の腕は自由にあなたの声の白襦子の裸体に巻きつく。私はあなたの声を音楽の小さな一片に切り刻んで私の胸深く秘蔵して置く。併し私の心の沙漠は脅かされる。女労動者の一群が棘だらけの仙人掌の葉を埃つぽい街路に散きちらしながら行進して来るので。

すべての水夫は笑つてゐる。笑ひは伝染する。すべての淫売婦は欠伸をしてゐる。欠伸は伝染する。私達は夜どほし笑ひと欠伸と一緒にし続けようとして疲れてしまふ。