you take the first street - robert desnos

You Take The First Street
by Robert Desnos

You take the first street on the right

You go along the quai

You cross the bridge

You knock at the door of the house.

The sun shines

The river flows

At a window a geranium pot trembles

An auto goes by on the other bank.

You turn around to the cheerful landscape

Without seeing that the door has opened behind you

The woman stands on the threshold

The house if full of darkness.

But on the table you see the reflection

The reflection of daylight on a piece of fruit and a bottle

On an earthen-ware plate and on some furniture

And you stay there on the threshold between the

World full of people like you

And on your droning solitude

Of the entire world.