English

 

Foul Age

 

My heart moved by pity

questions this foul age:

“What has become of my brothers,

what spiteful wind has blown

 

 stifled their breath

dried up all their love

clipped their fledgling wings?

A wind that sows hatred

 

and burns the flowers’ buds.”

My heart cries with grief

and questions this ugly age:

“What has become then of those

 

who went down together,

brother souls well-met,

eager for victory?

 

 On this scene of life

you vowed to write in blood

the lovely cry of Liberty!”

 

 You, mother, planted at the door

searching with tired eyes

to see if your sapling arrives.

Blood has fallen to the dust,

this earth waters itself

with their innocent breasts.

Yes, the cruel have violated

these beardless youths,

and your son will never return.

 

 

 

A Leash for God

 

You made man a hollow shell

a rock in his mouth.

You made peace a chimera

all hope has fled.

 

Thorns gnaw at your hearts

life hangs by a thread.

You stuffed the world in a sack

and put God on a leash

 

 Palm Tree

 

I climb the palm in haste

to have its fruit

I’ve adorned myself

bringing war to his back

my breath is cut off

in the clutch of his mouth

my heart nearly bursts

and rises to the sky

I climb the palm’s embrace

and melt into butter

he sits tenderly

on my hardened lap

the plough digs earth everywhere

finds the dry earth is wet

the eye cannot hold its tear

a spring inside the fount

 

 

Memory

 

Oh moon, we behold you together

I on this bank

and she beyond the water.

Tell her that my soul hurts

my heart is wretched

she inhabits my whole being.

I can’t swallow anything

when your memory haunts me.

The days slip away

have you noticed?

and with them the good times.

Love binds us,

solid and whole,

 engraved on our bones.

I live on your memory

when it haunts me.

You taught me life’s ways

my love for you overflows.

We made the stars our home.

Even the riverbanks

will be jealous

the day we meet.

I trace paths to the moon

when your memory haunts me.