KUSADASI

… He reads spelling.

"In Hell, there is no fire, from here to get all the heat ...
From here all the fire ...
From here ..."

he said over and over to himself… (...)

Immortal Erzurum,..
bread, sweat, dishonest world...

The road ends,
the day ends,
the fortune ends,

THE GOD ABANDONS ANTHONY

When suddenly, at midnight, you hear

an invisible procession going by

with exquisite music, voices,

don’t mourn your luck that’s failing now,

work gone wrong, your plans

all proving deceptive—don’t mourn them uselessly.

As one long prepared, and graced with courage,

say goodbye to her, the Alexandria that is leaving.

THE SOUTHERN CROSS

The Garbi was whipping up the waves.
we were bending, the two of us, over the map;
you turned and said to me that by March
you would have entered different latitudes.
 
On your chest [there is] a coolie's tattoo,
that, however much you burn it, does not think of disappearing.
They say that you have loved her [once]
during an attack of black fever.

PROMETHEUS

PROMETHEUS
 Yes, to my friends
 I make a most distressing sight.

CHORUS
Was there more?
Or were you guilty of just one offence?

PROMETHEUS
 I stopped men thinking of their future deaths.          [250]

CHORUS
 What cure for this disease did you discover?             310

PROMETHEUS
 Inside their hearts I put blind hope.

PERSEPHONE

I.
Dribble in the lake
just a tiny drop of wine
and the sun goes out

VI.
Lost in the thoughts her
chest is feeling heavy still
in the mirror glass

IIX.
Night fell, the wind sears
separation's spreading out
making rotund waves

 

THE DEMON

My mind is tired

How I fell
and crashed

Now with crutches
gold triangles, golden squares
I am hanging around

Now my white friend
black ghost
Now my black friend
white ghost

ICARUS

Whoever fights monsters
should see to it that in the process,
he does not become a monster.

 

FOR MOHAMED BASHIR AL AANI

all returned to sand
this agitated man
apostate poet

doubly sinning
brought to his knees
in the dust

with his son
before the scything of God
stills their restless thought

headless, released
from confusion by
symbiotic
understanding

with the
house of
Saud