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Aphorisms  
by Antonio Porchia
Translated by W. S. Merwin

Whatever I take, I take too much or too little; I do not take 

the exact amount. The exact amount is no use to me.

*

When one does not love the impossible, one does not love anything.

*

Every time I wake I understand how easy it is to be nothing.

*

Now you do not know what to do, not even when you go back to being
a child. And it is sad to see a child who does not know what to do.

*

Only a few arrive at nothing, because the way is long.



From Voices by Antonio Porchia, translated by W. S. Merwin. Translation copyright © 2003 by W. S. Merwin. Reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press. All right reserved.
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