Now tired from coughing and damned smoke,
Whose heat has scorched my thin lips,
I spit on the pavement like an old man, this cursed smoke
Has blackened my lungs with soot, I am all smoked out.
I am worn out from my smoke – stained wanderings,
My fingers, o God, corpse-yellow.

Smoke swirls round me as I stand
Again I whirl in the swirl of blue smoke,
And I fall like a bullet on the hard pavement.

This smoke pursues me like a ghoul. My paces have shortened,
Girls giggle at my terror
And their high heels clatter on broken stones…….

1992

Translated: John Hodgson