Passing stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you;
You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking (it comes to me, as of a dream).
I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you.
All is recalled as we flit by each other,
fluid, affectionate, chaste, matured;
You grew up with me, were a boy with me, or a girl with me;
I ate with you, and slept with you--your body has become not yours only,
nor left my body mine only;
You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh,
as we pass--you take of my beard, breast, hands in return;
I am not to speak to you--I am to think of you when I sit alone,
or wake at night alone;
I am to wait--I do not doubt I am to meet you again;
I am to see to it that I do not lose you.

E tu chi sei? chiesi alla pioggia che scendeva dolce,
e che, strano a dirsi, mi rispose, come traduco di seguito:
sono il Poema della Terra, disse la voce della pioggia,
eterna mi sollevo impalpabile su dalla terraferma e dal mare insondabile,
su verso il cielo, da dove, in forma labile, totalmente cambiata, eppure la stessa,
discendo a bagnare i terreni aridi, scheletriti, le distese di polvere del mondo,
e ciò che in essi senza di me sarebbe solo seme, latente, non nato;
e sempre, di giorno e di notte, restituisco vita alla mia stessa

origine, la faccio pura, la abbellisco;

and make pure and beautify it;