Citadin [English translation]

I don’t know the names of flowers

And that saddens me

I’m hardly any better with trees

I can make but a short list

I don’t know those latin names

That plants are given

The ones that only open in the morning

The ones that turn towards the sun

A practically harmless omission

Superfluous knowledge

For those like me who rarely garden

And no longer clamber

The branches to the treetops

And make few bouquets

Rarely eat bitter berries

Gathered from the woods

City boy

There’s a blank space in my head

Harmless

With my watering can

In hand

These plants I’m watering

I don’t know a thing about them

I can't put a name to birds

To my chagrin

The long legs in the reeds

The ballerina steps

The way in which they fly

Don’t know if they migrate

If they hunt or just flit about

They way their wings vibrate

A practically harmless omission

Superfluous knowledge

For one who’s lost their feline soul

And rarely hunts or shoots

Or trains their ear

To distinguish the calls

Of those whose songs awake us

In the early grey dawn

City boy

There’s a blank space in my head

Harmless

When I go to the square

With my little bits of bread

And make a bird feeder

With my hands

City boy

There’s a blank space in my head

Harmless

A silly little lapse of memory

But, in the end

It’s a little desperate