Extraordinary cycle of sonnets by the Swedish writer Erik Lindegren (published 1942)

I

(in the hall of mirrors where not only Narcissus

is enthroned free from giddiness on his pillar of despair

eternity suckled with a grimace

the land of unlimited possibilities

in the hall of mirrors where a single infected sob

escaped the crossed rapiers of indifference

and transformed the air into promise and soil

that ran down all the city’s windows

in the hall of mirrors where perfection is punched in sheet metal

and carried like a prisoner in the standard breast

where the word commits harakiri in the gleam of explosions

and the trumpet tastes of crushed china and dying blood

in the hall of mirrors where one becomes the far too many

and yet would fall as dew in time’s grave)

To see the entire cycle, go to here