[Nara Deer Park]

With my head on his spotted back

and his head on the grass-a little bored

with the quiet motion of life

and a cluster of mosquitoes making

hot black dunes in the air-we slept

with the smell of his fur engulfing us.

It was as if my dominant functions were gazing

and dreaming in a field of semiwild deer.

It was as if I could dream what I wanted,

and what I wanted was to long for nothing-

no facts, no reasons-never to say again,

"I want to be like him," and to lie instead

in the hollow deep grass-without esteem or riches-

gazing into the big, lacquer black eyes of a deer.