Not Heaving from my Ribb'd Breast Only

Not heaving from my ribb'd breast only,
Not in sighs at night in rage dissatisfied with myself,
Not in those long-drawn, ill-supprest sighs,
Not in many a oath and promise broken,
Not in my wilful and savage soul's volition,
Not in the subtle nourishment of the air,
Not at the beating and pounding at my temples and wrists,
Not in the curious systole and diastole within, which will one day cease,
Not in many a hungry wish told to the skies only,
Not in cries, laughter, defiances, thrown from me when alone far in the
............................wilds,
Not in husky pantings through clinch'd teeth,
Not in sounded and resounded words, chattering words, echoes, dead
.............................words,
Not in the murmurs of my dreams while I sleep,
Nor in the murmurs of these incredible dreams of everyday,
Nor in the limbs and senses of my body, that take you and dismiss you
.............................continually - not there,
Not in any or all of them O adhesiveness! O pulse of my life!
Need I that you exist and show yourself any more than in these songs.

Walt Whitman, Folhas de Erva:Leaves of Grass, vol. I, Maria de Lourdes Guimarães (Trad.), Relógio d'Água, 2002.