Two of them there beside the river, as if
The river were the conversation between them.
It was as if the vocables of the river
Could beautifully articulate some meaning
That the river knew about. They knew so little
About what it was that the river knew about,
The meaning they had each of them always wanted
To impart to the other with the authority
Of knowing who it was each of them was.
The river went on saying what it was saying.
—David Ferry
David Ferry is an acclaimed American poet and translator. His many books include Bewilderment, The Odes of Horace, and The Eclogues of Virgil.
