I wanted to dissolve my marriage, explode the limits,

seek comfort, oblivion, anything in caves,

on a whaling ship, in a hundred other places.
Shrewd reverie in my perilous head,

I struck out through the shambling waves:

I wanted to dissolve my marriage, explode the limits!
Beyond waterfalls and time lost and the first chastities to mar the shore,

defenceless men set me aflame,

on a whaling ship, in a hundred other places.
Not me at all, but my double, my look-alike;

not someone, but anyone in a sort of cloak and hood…

I wanted to dissolve my marriage, explode the limits.
How bare the narrative seems!

And nothing! And nothing and nothing and nothing…

on a whaling ship, in a hundred other places.
If you could only see me riding on and on,

babbling like a saint in the open fields!

I wanted to dissolve my marriage, explode the limits,

on a whaling ship, in a hundred other places.