Poesia kaiera
Autopotreta 1914-1918
Orain iduri du hurbil-hurbila ukan nuela gerla hura
Hura finitu eta zortzi urtetarat sortua nauzu
Greba orokorra azpiratua zutelarik.
Haatik argi-zirten eta metrailaren ondoan sortu nintzen
Lubaki-zoletako oholen gainean
Gorputzik gabeko zango-besoen artean.
Hildakoen behakotik sortu nintzen
Aire pozoituz troxatua
Eta lurpeko gerizatoki batean elikatua.
Bizirik irauteko esperantza hutsala izan nintzen
Lokatza nuela eri erakuslearen eta pototsaren artean
Abbeville-tik hurran sortua.
Ene bizialdiko lehen urtean
Biblia ttipi bateko orrien artean bizi izan nintzen
Zakuto kaki batean galkaturik.
Ene bizialdiko bigarren urtean
Emazte baten hiru potretekin batera bizi izan nintzen
Armadaren ordainsari-liburuxkaren barruan
Ene bizialdiko hirugarren urtean
1918ko hazilaren 11n goizeko 11etan
Izan zitekeen guzia bilakatu nintzen
Ikusteko parada ukan aitzin
Negar egiteko parada ukan aitzin
Gosetzeko parada ukan aitzin
Heroientzat bizileku izateko egokitutako mundua izan nintzen.
Self-portrait 1914-18
It seems now that I was so near to that war. / I was born eight years after it ended / When the General Strike had been defeated. // Yet I was born by Very Light and shrapnel / On duck boards / Among limbs without bodies. // I was born of the look of the dead / Swaddled in mustard gas / And fed in a dugout. // I was the groundless hope of survival / With mud between finger and thumb / Born near Abbeville. // I lived the first year of my life / Between the leaves of pocket bible / Stuffed in a khaki haversack. / I lived the second year of my life / With three photos of a woman / Kept in a standard issue army paybook. // In the third year of my life / At 11am on November 11th 1918 / I became all that was conceivable. // Before I could see / Before I could cry out / Before I could go hungry // I was the world fit for heroes to live in.