PADDINGTON


          O, the river in the street!
          Fantastic apparition
          behind a wall five feet high,
          it rolls on without a murmur
          its opaque yet pure flood
          through peaceful boroughs.

          The road is very wide, so that
          the water, yellow as a corpse's face,
          rolls on amply and without any hopes
          of reflecting anything but fog —
          even when dawn illuminates
          these yellow and black cottages.


          PAUL VERLAINE
          © Translated by James Kirkup, 2008




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