What we left behind down one road returned by another

Translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger

Every day,
Every day,
Every night,
Experience notwithstanding,
We enter sleep—not knowing
Through which door—each time
Like for the first time.

Not an owl on a branch,
Not one eye open, one eye closed,
Like a dolphin,
Not standing on one leg like a flamingo,
Not in a cave like a bat,
Head hung down, but
Laid out in a bed,
The pillows streaming from our heads.
The only creatures in this world
To take the shot this way:
This nightly fall to ground to lie
Aswim in dreams.