O another deluge of wind and rain.
Collar turned up, getting drenched in this splashing rain,
and looking up at you -- it's me, ...
it's that Japanese.
This morning
about daybreak the storm suddenly went violent, terrible,
and now is blowing through Paris from one end to the other.
I have yet to know the directions of this land.

I don't even know which way this storm is facing. ...
Only because even today I wanted to stand here
and look up at you, Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris,
I came, getting drenched,
only because I wanted to touch you,
only because I wanted to kiss your skin, the stone, unknown to anyone.



Stephen Hartke - Tituli, Cathedral in the Thrashing Rain (2003)