In This Hotel

Emanuel Carnevali

The headwaiter says:
“Nice day today!”
He smiles sentimentally.
The headwaiter says:
“It will rain today!”
He frowns gracefully.
Those are the greetings, every morning,
To every old lady,
And every old gent,
And every old rogue,
And every young couple—
To every guest.

And I, who do not sleep, who wait and watch for the dawn,
One day I would come down to the world.
I would have a trumpet as powerful as the wind,
And I would trumpet out to the world
The splendid commonplace:
“Nice day today!”
And another day I would cry out in despair,
“It will rain today!”
For every old lady,
And every old gent,
And every old rogue,
And every young couple—
Are they not guests in this hotel,
Where the ceiling is the sky
And the floor is the earth,
And the rooms are the houses?

But I, I—this wretched, tired thing—
May I ask for a job
As headwater
Of this hotel?