Poetry from Gëzim Basha, translated by Marjeta Rrapaj

Middle aged white man with short dark hair and a shirt with a collar in front of a shelf of encyclopedias. Black and white image.
Gezim Basha
Young middle-aged European light-skinned woman with shoulder length dark straight hair, brown eyes, a necklace and a black and red top.
Marjeta Rrapaj

LOVE SONG IN SPRING

Sun in the morning, rain in the afternoon

This is how you are to me this day

Here you play, there you frown,

What will you do to me, every time I do to you?!

Silent with words, speaks with looks

You become shy because of my shyness!

I feel your breath, where are you, why

I will abandon myself to come there

A white flame leads us on the path

We come…it leaves…We go…it burns us

Something of me burned to ashes

Coal to write what we haven’t said

I descend from the depths, you descend from the trees

Shake on the edge of the abyss, you will scare me

We stand in silence and cry without tears

I can’t stay with you, I can’t do without you

The flame of lightning ignites in the rain

And the embers of longing bring tears to my eyes

Sun in the morning

Rain in the afternoon…

TIME OF DECAY

You tell me: The world went to hell

When the wolf under the lamb’s skin started laughing

And the rabbit hid in a turtle shell…

Since the hawk became a dove

And the snake learned to make eel-like coquetry 

Since then…(always according to you)

The devil took man for granted!

It’s not true…

Deterioration began in that world when people

Learned to change their skin every day

Animals imitated them as always.

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