Song to a lover

When I first met you,

You were like the dark night,

Serene, unheeding and quiet,

When I first met you.

You are Persia. I know it now.

You are the Arabian night in the tales.

Tu es comme les persiennes qui laissent entrer la nuit.

Tu es la nuit des persiennes.

You are the air brittle with foreboding, the dust stirring before the lash of the storm.

The unexpected.

When I first met you,

Tu étais comme une comète,

Comme un astéroide fou,

When I first met you.

Your hair like banyan roots coiled around me,

Your fingers clinging to fate like ivy on stone.

Tu regardes l'œil bleu de la mer comme un miroir glauque,

Rêvant d'horizons et de montagnes.

Tu iras là où aucun de tes ancêtres n'a foulé le sol.

We should leave the country

You and I

We could build

A boat from a tree

And flee

Fulfilled

Sur l'océan.

Avec ou sans moi.

You were dancing in the fell obscurity,

Your lithe arms swishing like those of an Indian Goddess

And your gaze fixed on the tip of the air,

Balancing your tipping feet hovering an inch above the ground,

Lançant tes ongles déchirés à l'œil du jour,

Riant à pleine gorge.

When I first met you,

Je voyais ton corps déjà nu.

When I'll see the last of you,

Tu seras encore l'inconnu.