My eyes, my all-piercing gaze, sharp
corneas take in everything at once! They see
what lies between touch and touch,
what hides secret from wall to wall.
They see it all, see within the deceiver's smile
what poison lurks; in floods, famines, pestilence, plague,
in corpses heaped and rotting on the roads
what reaction stirs, they see it all. In the Prime Minister's
speech how much truth remains, they survey
the face and see, in forbidden posters
on walls how much speaks for the people,
what kind of bold workers there are, what explosives
gather in secret meetings—all this
my two eyes see, my corneas, my all-piercing gaze.
They see how much difference or
similarity lies between river and woman. At midnight
by what process a lustful, passion-red woman
will commit abortion—my eyes catch this
in a glance, find the mystery. When
some unknown star will fall from the sky,
keeping both eyes on the heavens,
watching the movement of stars, they can foretell.
My eyes, sharp corneas, all-piercing gaze
can tell what kind of human
dwells within a human, poem within poem,
how much song within song, how much water
in tears, how much sorrow in the expression
of sorrow—my all-piercing gaze
can tell from scene to scene beyond.