Joy!

There is joy, there really is.

And he felt it not as something merciless

which rushes on us

and puts out our unguarded fire

nor as a vertigo which in the double light of irony

brings us a bottle and shoes to make us dance -

no, what he felt was a quiet, simple, unfounded joy,

given rather than granted for an hour,

the joy of a man walking over a bridge

who will go on singing for ever...

But it was enough for the wind to toss a withered leaf

at his feet

and the bridge was overloaded.