Translations: THE GHOST IS I

I. THE GHOST IS I

Vivants, vous êtes des fantômes.
C'est nous qui sommes les vivants!

V. H.

My soul is a princess in her tower closed
gazing on life through five little windows.
She is a mournful goddess prisoned by the body.
And your soul, which flew before you died,
is a brilliant wing, thoroughly freed...
You are not the ghost; the ghost is I!

What do I understand of things! To me, things offer
not what they truly are, but how they appear
to the five senses with which God holds at bay
my bulky sensorium, my tenuous perceiving.
You know all today... I, rather, know nothing!
You are not the ghost; the ghost is I!