Passers-by
When you go walking by night up a street and a man, visible a long way
off--for the street mounts uphill and there is a full moon--comes running
toward you, well, you don't catch hold of him, not even if he is a feeble
and ragged creature, not even if someone chases yelling at his heels, but
you let him run on.
For it is night, and you can't help it if the street goes uphill before yo
in the moonlight, and besides, these two have maybe started that chase to
amuse themselves, or perhaps they are both chasing a third, perhaps the
first is an innocent man and the second wants to murder him and you would
become an accessory, perhaps they don't know anything about each other and
are merely running seperately home to bed, perhaps they are night birds,
perhaps the first man is armed.
And anyhow, haven't you a right to be tired, haven't you been drinking a lot
of wine? You're thankful that the second man is now long out of sight.
Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir
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