by Wallace Stevens

by Wallace Stevens
     Twenty men crossing a bridge，
     Into a village，
     Are twenty men crossing twenty bridges，
     Into twenty villages，
     Or one man
     Crossing a single bridge into a village.
     This is old song
     That will not declare itself . . .
     Twenty men crossing a bridge，
     Into a village，
     Are
     Twenty men crossing a bridge
     Into a village.
     That will not declare itself
     Yet is certain as meaning . . .
     The boots of the men clump
     On the boards of the bridge.
     The first white wall of the village
     Rises through fruit-trees.
     Of what was it I was thinking？
     So the meaning escapes.
     The first white wall of the village . . .
     The fruit-trees . . .