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 )