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This poem is taken from PN Review 74, Volume 16 Number 6, July - August 1990.

Aurora (Translated by Rachel Hadas) Paul Valéry

Confusion and gloom,
My versions of repose,
Dissipate as the room
Is touched with dawn's first rose.
Endowed with new control,
I straighten up my soul
And I begin to pray.
Barely emerged from depths
Of sleep, courageous steps
Move toward the light of day.

Hail! I salute you, twin
Similitudes, who each -
Smiling, asleep, akin -
Shine out from common speech
And who contain all these
Sounds like a hive of bees
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