BROTHERHOOD
Homage to Claudius Ptolemy
from Collected Poems by Octavio Paz (1987-8)
by Octavio Paz (1914-1988)
translated by Eliot Weinberger

I am a man: little do I last
and the night is enormous.
But I look up:
the stars write.
Unknowing I understand:
I too am written,
and at this very moment
someone spells me out.