All these fellows were there inside when she entered
 utterly naked.
 They'd been drinking and began to spit at her,
 [bad word] from the river, she understood nothing.
 She was a mermaid who had lost her way,
 the taunts flowed over her glistening flesh
 Obscenities drenched her golden [bad word] 

 stranger to tears, she did not weep,
 stranger to clothes, she did not dress.
 They poked her with cigarette ends and with burnt corks
 And rolled on the tavern floor in raucous laughter
 She did not speak, since speech was unknown to her
 Her eyes were the colour of far away love
 Her arms were matching topazes
 Her lips moved soundlessly in coral light
 And ultimately she left by that door
 Hardly had she entered the river than she was cleansed
 Gleaming once more like a white stone in the rain
 And without a backward look, she swam once more
 Swam towards nothingness, swam to her dawn.