The Crow Poem by Adeeb Kamal Ad-Deen

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!"

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.
When they removed my naked body to you.
People laughed at the whiteness of my heart
And at the blackness of my corpse.

Music of pain is unforgettable
And lies of love are as true as
The kiss of a teenager.

Why does time haunt you?
Is it because you have breasts of pomegranate,
And a belly of ivory,
And eyes narrow as a southern boat,
And a fate that looks like the crow's?

Music played our fate;
There were not so many colours.
There was black as blood
And there was white as blood too.

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.

Your kisses did not reach.
Maybe because the postman
Was jealous of me.
Maybe because your language
Was white as the crow.

Your kisses did not reach
Though your neck was warm.
Yes, you were in your nineteenth summer.

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.

You who taught me to dance:
Dance over the corpses of letters
And over the remains of burnt clocks.

You are my crow.
This is what I had to say
At the beginning of the poem
To relieve others and relieve myself.