Skylab

    Translated by Roger Greenwald

    We've come so far， thought the astronaut

    as he swam around the capsule in his third week

    and by accident kicked a god in the eye

    ——so far

    that there's no difference anymore between up and down，

    north and south， heavy and light.

    And how， then， can we know righteousness.

    So far.

    And weightless， in a sealed room

    we chase the sunrises at high speed

    and sicken with longing¹ for a green stalk

    or the heft of something in our hands. Lifting a stone.

    One night he saw that the Earth was like an open eye

    that looked at him as gravely as the eye of a child

    awakened² in the middle of the night.