After grasping the games and their rulesThe fatigue of participation becomes less and less bearable.Straight after grasping the knowledge of gainOne must leave the game;This is not the story of losingBut of not winningBecause:The city is a woman so forlorn she can't say "no,"Who makes love because she doesn't want to speak;The city is a badly beaten dogThat no longer responds to pain;The tonic words that touch the hearts of urbanitesCan't handleThe aches that get buried deeper as the city dwellers sleep,And for this reasonEvery conversation in the city is a little bit in vain.*Every ache sleeps in a certain position. In sleep, thebody that becomes itself as it forgets itself willdiscover that position through trial and error.The body knows how to soothe its own ache. The bodycan construct soporific angles, hills for its aches. Everyhill conceals an ache. This is why thousands of acheswill settle in the hills of our flesh, of our insides, wherethey have found their sleeping positions. This is why itis dangerous to budge people, to demolish their hills.To tug at cities and at urbanites is to awaken the achesthat sleep on the hills.*-S live in every house; peoplebuild hills to put their aches to sleep.-S and -es, the adjacent suffixes,Will begin new days for new achesPeople who cause people to acheWill collide again tomorrow without ointmentThen they'll return and make other peopleLick their aching spots;-S and -esShall live by licking and biting,By making people lick and bite*ŠsWhereas saliva wounds the flesh:If you press your soft mouth for very long to a body,If you briefly glide your sharp mouth across a body,In both cases*ŠWhereas saliva heals the flesh's woundsIf you press your soft mouth for very long to a body,If you briefly glide your sharp mouth across a body,In both cases*Š*Wounds will open in your fleshThen the wounds will forget themselves in your fleshThere is no third way in this cityAnd in the other city*ŠAnd in the other one*ŠDon't wake sleeping aches!Neither the city's, nor the city dwellers'Keep your saliva inside your cheeks,Don't kiss those who don't have the strength to say "no"Don't gather on the city's hillsLike the pushy crowdsDon't stamp around the hills and wake the city's achesDon't stand on the seven aches' seven hills,This work is not for youBecause:If you bite, your mouth will hurtIf you lick, you'll get poisonedIn any case, it is you who will fall in this city*But still, a person can only be alone in a city with a sea.Because you can turn your face to the sea. That way,you turn your back to the crowds. As for cities withouta sea, whichever way you turn there are people,whichever way you turn.For that reason, people should get along well with eachother in cities without a sea. As for cities with a sea,those who want to can also live without running intopeople's faces.*Go down. Go down to the seaFor if you turn your face to the seaYou'll turn your back on the shameless crowdOnly in a city with a sea can you be by yourselfBy the seaPeople are all the same. They gradually turn into mirrors.Only the opposite of your face,Its reverse can be reflected in their waters.Let go, don't look at those mirrors,Let your retinas register a thousand disparate wavesYour nape to the sun, your forehead to the windLook, look carefully, may your eyes brim with seaIn any case you'll certainlyEncounter, even in this city,A person who'll say, "Some sea got in your eye," to someone,"A bird got stuck in your hair," to someone elseWho'll lean their ear against your mind,Who'll look not at your face, but wherever you're lookingWho, when you say, "They're crowding the sea, the water hurts,"Won't be surprised and stare at your mouth, but at the seaIn this city of seven achesThis person will touch your aches without waking themLull your pain without opening it upGo down. Go down to the sea

For the next poem in this sequence, "Offering II," please click here.