Fatos Arapi Poems

Those who have no food,
When they dream of food,
Let them think of you and me.
Those who have no fire,
When they dream of fire,
Let them think of you and me.
The insomniacs of this world
With their eyes wide open like the night,
In the depth of their nights,
Let them think of you and me.
Those who have perished
And who still love -
Let them think of you and me.

(1970)
...

Like the linden tree, words spread their fragrance through the twilight,
Deep in the words I have spoken,
As in the depths of the Ionian,
I see my face.
...

Little Mother

Mother has shrunk,
As if constantly stooping,
My heart quivers,
So brittle, so tiny...
Almost as if she were my child,
...

On the shoulders of my times
I rested my head.
I did not sleep. I did not doze.
On the shoulders of my times,
As on Her shoulder
I was lost in thought.
...

I dived into the waters of the Ionian Sea,
Into its hues and light.
I swim in a blaze of mirages,
...

The two of us were once
Like sky and sea:
If one clouded over, the other grew dark,
...

I am leaving without saying good-bye to the sea.

This one time
I did not foray to those familiar banks to bid farewell
To the gulls. I can no longer bear their absence.
Perhaps I am growing old,
...

I arose and left my grave.

In the darkness I sought you,
Holding a lamp.
In my hand,
Three bright daffodils.

Please, fill my eyes
With your smile.

It was for you I left my grave.
...

Ancient confusion in those wise,
those fond eyes...
Beside a car, beneath a traffic light,
Elegant, glistening in the sun
and the wind.
They neigh,
The brothers of Pegasus. Volatile,
As if spewed from the bowels of the earth.
With dazzling tassels on their brows
they snort,
The coursers of Kosova.
...

We are born and our bodies are clothed in names,
Someone lays us in a name-shell,
Then they engrave on the white marble,
On a stone bust something like:
Caesar
or Brutus.
...