The crow


Adeeb Kamal Ad-Deen

 

1

 

When the crow passed

Over the head of Death, it said:

“I am the crow!”

“So what?” Death said.

“I am the black crow!” the crow said.

So Death laughed and said:

“For me you are whiter than ice!”

2

Yesterday I remembered you

You have no name nor address.

You whom I forgot before

The beginning of the flood.

So I danced without arms and feet.

3

When they removed my naked body to you.

People laughed at the whiteness of my heart

And at the blackness of my corpse.

4

Music of pain is unforgettable

And lies of love are as true as

The kiss of a teenager.

 

5

Why does time haunt you?

Is it because you have breasts of pomegranate,

A belly of ivory,

Eyes narrow as a southern boat,

And a fate that looks like the crow’s?

6

Music played our fate;

There were not so many colours.

There was black as blood

And there was white as blood too.

7

I return to poetry

As usual

Because of you.

I return to see Time

Beating my letters with his great whip.

I return to see my biggest dot

That looks like a big city

Losing in the sea.

8

Your kisses did not reach.

Maybe because the postman

Was jealous of me.

Maybe because your language

Was white as the crow.

9

Your kisses did not reach

Though your neck was warm.

Yes, you were in  your nineteenth summer.

10

You were full of music,

Moony as a summer night,

Obedient as a jewel that lights in the dark,

Silly as a parrot that lisps,

Foolish as a mad man’s laugh.

11

You who taught me to dance:

Dance over the corpses of letters

And over the remains of burnt clocks.

12

You are my crow.

This is what I had to say

At the beginning of the poem

To relieve others and relieve myself.

 

( Tp )

 

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