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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.

Ìý

You hold a moon in your right hand,

in the other an unknown man's head –

people are looking round after you

in dumb astonishment, but each

who looks will, crown to ankles,

turn to stone.

Ìý

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,

Ìý

but you do not hear; you are talking

to the moon.

Ìý

Nightmare

Home again years later: but

no one has come to welcome you. You leave

the buzzing airport hall

alone – on your feet pendulums,

in your empty hands two suitcases

full of desert sand and the sounds of the sea.

Ìý

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

–ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý they have forgotten, though you wrote

in the self-same beautiful hand.

Ìý

You gaze through the window into your room:

your things, whatever

ought to be waiting for you, they sold off

to the bazaar

Ìý

and suddenly a neighbour's child comes out

to offer you a glass

of vinegar.

Ìý

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.

Ìý

Your eyes burn through me. I say something,

but you do not hear and suddenly,

urgently grip my hands in yours:

Ìý

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 –

just now she's doing the weekend shopping

and I know too well

Ìý

that the most romantic flowers grow

where the grey ash of the everyday does not settle,

of the common, practical-banal life.ÌýÌý

Ìý

Road

You've married badly.

Ìý

You ask if all life long

you must eat Lenten pap, and why

your nights and mornings cannot breathe

the delicate scent of cinnamon...

Ìý

I've known all from the moment

our eyes met. At least

once a week you desire me, secretly –

but I cannot. Yes,

I am unbending and you ask me why

Ìý

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 – the pale princess

in a high, impregnable tower.

Ìý

Such is my road.

Ìý

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 –

Ìý

such is our fate: all life long to touch

and give ourselves one to the other

only in poems

Ìý

and dreams.

Ìý

Sixth Commandment

I was not able to sustain my guard:

Ìý

one fragrant summer afternoon

that man spread out his invisible nets

on our threshold. Without permission

Ìý

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.

Ìý

Father, that strength is from you;

fertile

Ìý

and lethal. I am afraid.

To keep your sixth commandment

is the hardest of all –

Ìý

forgive us, please.

Ìý

Ìý

Ìý Ìý Ìý Translated byÌýJohn Minahane