This is This.
That is That.
All is either that, or not that.
What is not that and not this, that is neither this nor that.
What is that and this, that is to Itself.
What is to Itself, that may be either that,
                 yet not this, or this, yet not that.

This went into that, and that went into this.
                                  We say: God has blown.
This went into this, and that went into that,
                 and we have nowhere to come out of and nowhere to go.
This went into this.  We asked: where?
                                  They sang to us: here.
This came out of Here.  What is this?  This is That.
This is being that.
That is being this.
Here are this and that.
Here went into this, this went into that,
                                  and that went into here.
We looked, but did not see.
While there were standing this and that.

There is not here.
There is that.
Here is this.
But now there are this and that.
And now here are this and that.
We are saddened and thinking and languishing.

So where is now?
Now is here, and now there, and now here,
                                  and now here and there.
This is to be that.
Here is to be there.
This that here there to be.  I.  We.  God.




Daniil Harms, May 29, 1930.