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Legend of Lilith

You walk on a street flooded with sun;

before you, after you, the dark.

Your neon eyes, like will-o'-the-wisps

in a murky forest, glow afar.

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You hold a moon in your right hand,

in the other an unknown man's head 鈥�

people are looking round after you

in dumb astonishment, but each

who looks will, crown to ankles,

turn to stone.

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At the crossroads, finally

alone, you drop to the ground,

lay the man's head in your lap,

and its eyes open. Painfully

it gazes: Even thus you are beautiful,

it says and suddenly begins to sing

a mournful song,

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but you do not hear; you are talking

to the moon.

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Nightmare

Home again years later: but

no one has come to welcome you. You leave

the buzzing airport hall

alone 鈥� on your feet pendulums,

in your empty hands two suitcases

full of desert sand and the sounds of the sea.

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At your house door

you realise: the locks are new. You ring

your sister, but her number's changed. Only

the neighbours intimate

that your nearest will be coming next year

鈥撎� they have forgotten, though you wrote

in the self-same beautiful hand.

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You gaze through the window into your room:

your things, whatever

ought to be waiting for you, they sold off

to the bazaar

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and suddenly a neighbour's child comes out

to offer you a glass

of vinegar.

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Laws of Romance

Just you and I. A secret meeting

in the town's nicest cafe; delicious music,

my perfume and a tight black dress with lace.

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Your eyes burn through me. I say something,

but you do not hear and suddenly,

urgently grip my hands in yours:

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I want you, in an altered voice you say,

and wait for my answer. Yes, your atelier

is just a step away... but I see suddenly

your pale wife at the other end of town 鈥�

just now she's doing the weekend shopping

and I know too well

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that the most romantic flowers grow

where the grey ash of the everyday does not settle,

of the common, practical-banal life.听听

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Road

You've married badly.

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You ask if all life long

you must eat Lenten pap, and why

your nights and mornings cannot breathe

the delicate scent of cinnamon...

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I've known all from the moment

our eyes met. At least

once a week you desire me, secretly 鈥�

but I cannot. Yes,

I am unbending and you ask me why

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it must be so. All I know is this:

in dreamless nights, when I catch my soul on film

in all its hues and details,

and I spread the pictures on the table like cards,

one remains in my hand 鈥� the pale princess

in a high, impregnable tower.

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Such is my road.

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Fate

In a city of vice and unshackled loves, we two

live our blameless life;

each in a different structure of family clan

with the smells of young, encircled

with barbed wire

and full of desire, which we secretly burn into script 鈥�

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such is our fate: all life long to touch

and give ourselves one to the other

only in poems

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and dreams.

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Sixth Commandment

I was not able to sustain my guard:

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one fragrant summer afternoon

that man spread out his invisible nets

on our threshold. Without permission

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he stole me. Nights long I think of him

and next me my good husband lies. Suspecting nothing.

But I am desperate

and powerless: a beautiful woman

in the best years, with senses wakened,

gifted with strength, which changes me to a primate

scattering scent, deprived of reason and will.

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Father, that strength is from you;

fertile

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and lethal. I am afraid.

To keep your sixth commandment

is the hardest of all 鈥�

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forgive us, please.

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听 听 听 Translated by听John Minahane