JOURNAL OF A DIAMOND
and in the bath of liquid fire
alone I know myself more cold more pure
I have no fear of vitriol
I
unmounted diamond among them all
Gay as fire that rears
high above winter snow
I never burned on czarinas
as this evening in the workers' hands
the hands of those who took me, not as jewel
but as a sun to throw
a silver fish to cast back to the sea
they give me tonight to my mother, she
the carbon-hearted, the earth,
with the charred ashes of empire
in the mines
Behold me free as the stones of the fields
The red guards return
to the town
Finally I cover myself
with kingless shadows whither I go
to tell the brightness of the new days
to the monsters of the earth below.
57
LOUIS ARAGON
Translated
by
Muriel Rukeyser
