Spring Poem by Mustafa Stitou

Oh plump young lady with quasi-
dreamy eyes and a pert udder,
when you, enthralled by the sun,
just capered so comically,

so movingly beside yourself,
you accidentally squashed a
redshank - beak shattered,
guts on its plumage,

the bird didn't survive.
But it did, in a split second,
forgive you - just so you know.
As you too forgive me, my lady,

for settling on you now
to drink of your blood
for ten or so minutes. Or as I too forgive
the shyly flirting farmgirl

who just took a swing at me
while I was sunbathing
on my favourite post, half
listening to the tongue-tied farmboy

trying to ask her to join him
for a walk around the lake
but trapped more and more irretrievably
in his embarrassment.

Translated by David Colmer