Before I go
I'm supposed to get a last wish:
Generous reader
burn this book
It's not at all what 1 wanted to say
Though it was written in blood
It's not what I wanted to say.

No lot could be sadder than mine
I was defeated by my own shadow:
My words took vengeance on me.

Forgive me, reader, good reader
If I cannot leave you
With a warm embrace. I leave you
With a forced and sad smile.

Maybe that's all I am
But listen to my last word:
I take back everything I`ve said.
With the greatest bitterness in the world
I take back everything I`ve said.

translated by Miller Williams
traducido por Miller Williams

en: Antipoems: New and Selected (edited by David Unger), New York, New Directions, 1985.