Caravaggio; Narcissus, c. 1597-9
I too pass from the night,
I stay a while away O night, but I return to you again
and love you.
Why should I be afraid to trust myself to you?
I am not afraid, I have been well brought forward by
you,
I love the rich running day, but I do not desert her in
whom I lay so long,
I know not how I came of you and I know not where I go
with you, but I know I came well and shall go
well.
I will stop only a time with the night, and rise
betimes,
I will duly pass the day O my mother, and duly return
to you.
Walt Whitman; Sleepers
1
I wander all night in my vision,
Stepping with light feet, swiftly and noiselessly stepping and stopping,
Bending with open eyes over the shut eyes of sleepers,
Wandering and confused, lost to myself, ill-assorted, contradictory,
Pausing, gazing, bending, and stopping.
