Have you felt – I have – a pain that you enjoyed?
Do they say that about you, too:  ‘How strange he is!’
– I was dying, and a special agony
filled my eager soul: dread and desire,

anguish and expectation – no sense of revolt.
The closer I came to what would be the end,
the sharper was my torment and the more welcome;
my heart was wrenching free from the usual world.

I was like a child in front of a stage,
hating the curtain as if it were in the way…
Finally the cold truth was revealed:

I had simply died, and the terrible dawn
enveloped me. Could this be all there is?
The curtain was up, and I was waiting still.