Carlos Drummond de Andrade: "In the Middle of the Road"

In the middle of the road there was a stone
there was a stone in the middle of the road
there was a stone
in the middle of the road there was a stone.

Never should I forget this event
in the life of my fatigued retinas.
Never should I forget that in the middle of the road
there was a stone
there was a stone in the middle of the road
in the middle of the road there was a stone.

"In the Middle of the Road" by Carlos Drummond de Andrade. Translated from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Bishop and published in her Complete Poems: 1927-1979.  © Noonday Press, 1983.

Photography credit: "Slovenia Rock on the Road," by Gijsen Pieter (originally color).