Twenty men crossing a bridge,

Into a village,

Are twenty men crossing twenty bridges,

Into twenty villages,

Or one man

Crossing a single bridge into a village.



This is old song

That will not declare itself...



Twenty men crossing a bridge,

Into a village,

Are

Twenty men crossing a bridge

Into a village.



That will not declare itself

Yet is certain as meaning...



The boots of the men clump

On the boards of the bridge.

The first white wall of the village

Rises through fruit-trees.

Of what was it I was thinking?



So the meaning escapes.



The first white wall of the villageÉ

The fruit-trees. . .


"Metaphors of a Magnifico" From Harmonium (1923)