Lines of a pantheist

Destroy me star
- says the poet -
pierce me with distance's arrow

drink me source
- says a drinker -
to the dregs drink me to nullity

let sharp eyes deliver me
to devouring landscapes

words meant to save the body
may they bring me precipices

a star will sink its root in my forehead
the source will lend my face humanity

and you'll awaken silent
in the palms of stillness
at the heart of the thing

Zbigniew Herbert, Collected Poems 1956 - 1998, Ecco, Alissa Valles (trad.), 2007