Poem

  1       | above
  2 Nostal|       Looking in the window from afar,~From the trees along the
  3       | again
  4 Nostal|      them~I took to the roads of Albania!~To hell with the kitchen,
  5 Found |       these one-time verses come alive~Whenever the road brings
  6       | along
  7 City  |      Would have fashioned you in Alpine marble~And you would have
  8 City  |         we could now meet.~In my arms you will be warmer~Than
  9 City  |         you off in marble to the Art Gallery...~Don't laugh!~
 10 Nostal|           I wrote many poems and articles,~Got married and raised
 11 Vine  |           sometimes free.~No one asks the grape-pickers~Why the
 12 Nostal|        my friends - wise, noisy, audacious,~Read whatever I had written~
 13 City  |      From every window we hear a ballad,~From every portal we hear
 14 Cow   |        her cud in the hay-filled barn,~I lean my face against
 15 Work  |       With soap and water in the bath.~Dirt entered the furrows
 16 Found |         have built other dreams,~Beautiful, delirious dreams...~ ~ ~
 17       | before
 18 Poets |          Oh, my beloved?"~Do not believe we were heartless! If only
 19 Poets |          have stammered, "Oh, my beloved?"~Do not believe we were
 20       | between
 21 Cow   |         in the meadows.~Over her black horns hangs an electric
 22 Found |       tree and talk to myself,~A blade of grass between my lips:~
 23 Found |       grows over them,~The apple blossoms cast their petals.~Visions
 24 Cynic |        the point~            and blunt in tone,~I tell you~      "
 25 Found |         farmer...~And I need not blush at having hung onto this
 26       | both
 27 Bourge|                        The petty bourgeoisie~(Mikroborgjezi)~What's all
 28 Found |           apple trees wave their branches,~Trees unknown to me when
 29 Work  |     hands silently~Like a plough breaking through the soil.~I know
 30 City  |      verse?~It comes with a warm breeze from the city's ancient
 31 Found |          alive~Whenever the road brings me back here,~And they rustle
 32 Nostal|        lives happily.~Greetings, brother, I say to myself,~Looking
 33 Poets |        fight illiteracy,~That we build dams on the rivers,~That
 34 Found |        dreams,~Upon which I have built other dreams,~Beautiful,
 35 Nostal|         With my trousers full of burrs,~And juniper needles in
 36 Poets |      nothings.~Our printers were busy with more important things.~ ~ ~
 37 City  |        later~To discover you and carry you off in marble to the
 38 Found |         them,~The apple blossoms cast their petals.~Visions of
 39 City  |             Don't laugh!~That is certainly the way it would have happened.~
 40 Poets |        with grain and heavy iron chains.~We, who spent many a sleepless
 41 Cow   |           The cow~(Lopa)~The cow chews her cud in the hay-filled
 42 Found |       unknown to me when I was a child,~Apple trees that friends
 43 Nostal|           Got married and raised children.~How many sleepless nights
 44 Found |          grass together with the chiselled doorstep~Sleep old verses
 45 Nostal|     boulevard I stop and light a cigarette~In front of my old apartment
 46 Cynic |          s monologue~(Monologu i cinikut)~I loved you,~      I love
 47 Work  |       dirt~Even as he lay in his coffin.~He looked as if he were
 48 Nostal|   pavement a leaf~Falls onto the collar of my jacket.~So many years
 49 Poets |        we have not accomplished.~Compared to you, we will look like
 50 Heart |        and grain!~No measure can contain you,~Only my heart, that
 51 Poets |        poor poets,~That we teach courses to fight illiteracy,~That
 52 Found |          stone.~Tender grass has covered both the doorstep and the
 53 Cow   |          Lopa)~The cow chews her cud in the hay-filled barn,~
 54 Nostal|        To hell with the kitchen, cups and saucers and spoons,~
 55 Bourge|         long,~            we can cut them!~ ~ ~
 56 Cynic |                              The cynic's monologue~(Monologu i
 57 Poets |        illiteracy,~That we build dams on the rivers,~That we light
 58 Work  |     Under his nails the dirt was dark blue,~Dirt from the fields
 59 Work  |         fields~As he would do at dawn,~Lying back with his head
 60 Found |         that friends planted the day of my departure.~Under the
 61 Work  |         looked as if he were not dead at all,~But simply dozing
 62 Poets |        accomplished many a great deed,~Could we not at least have
 63 Found |   written poems in the city,~But deep down inside I am a farmer...~
 64 Found |         other dreams,~Beautiful, delirious dreams...~ ~ ~
 65 Poets |          the fields.~The country demanded of us poor poets,~That we
 66 Found |    notebooks.~They sleep and the dense grass grows over them,~The
 67 Found |    friends planted the day of my departure.~Under the grass together
 68 Cow   |     flank~Feeling from her inner depths the warmth,~The warmth of
 69 City  |          thousand years later~To discover you and carry you off in
 70 Nostal|       friends who arrived at the door,~Entertaining them leisurely
 71 City  |       statues sleeping under the doorsteps,~And under the roots of
 72 City  |       under the foundations of a doorway,~Undiscovered for a long
 73 Work  |          dead at all,~But simply dozing before setting out for the
 74 Bourge|      thirsty,~            we can drink;~If our nails are getting
 75 Cow   |        waits a moment, her hands dripping.~She says:~      "Are you
 76 Poets |          words to poets to come~(Dy fjalë poetëve që vijnë)~
 77 City  |         ancient city~(Në qytetin e lashtë)~The two of us stroll
 78 Poets |   nothings we whispered in their ears on those radiant evenings!~
 79 Cow   |         her black horns hangs an electric light~Shining down into
 80       | else
 81       | elsewhere
 82       | enough
 83 Work  |          water in the bath.~Dirt entered the furrows of those hands
 84       | Even
 85 Poets |      their ears on those radiant evenings!~But we lacked the time
 86       | everything
 87 Nostal|      lived there in peace and in excitement,~Where the lights are shining
 88 Nostal|         their noses,~Saying, "We expect real verse!"~And who knows
 89 Vine  |  vineyard,~Crates where raki and exquisite wines lie sleeping,~Rows
 90 Cow   |         studies me with her blue eyes,~Lovely, wise and peaceful.~
 91 Nostal|        along the pavement a leaf~Falls onto the collar of my jacket.~
 92 Found |          deep down inside I am a farmer...~And I need not blush
 93 City  |     ancient sculptors~Would have fashioned you in Alpine marble~And
 94 Work  |           Those good fingers.~My father's nails were blue with dirt~
 95 City  |          we hear a poem.~Can you feel the sound of verse?~It comes
 96 Cow   |          against her great flank~Feeling from her inner depths the
 97 Poets |        have seen~The passions we felt for the girls we loved and
 98 Nostal|        it burns with~            fiery nostalgia?'~On the boulevard
 99 Poets |         That we teach courses to fight illiteracy,~That we build
100 Poets |       words to poets to come~(Dy fjalë poetëve që vijnë)~We had
101 Poets |        rivers,~That we light the flame of socialism in the mountains.~
102 Found |       grass and apple leaves~And flutter past...~Then I sit down
103 Cow   |   against her flank, I smell the foaming milk.~The milkmaid gently
104 Bourge|          sit in the kitchen;~The food smells good, we won't go
105 City  |         would have happened.~How fortunate it is that you were not
106 Vine  |     Sometimes scanned, sometimes free.~No one asks the grape-pickers~
107 Poets |          country needed songs of freedom,~The country needed songs
108 Work  |       the bath.~Dirt entered the furrows of those hands silently~
109 Cow   |        warmth,~The warmth of hay gathered in the meadows.~Over her
110 Cow   |       foaming milk.~The milkmaid gently removes the pail~And waits
111 Bourge|          drink;~If our nails are getting long,~            we can
112 Poets |         passions we felt for the girls we loved and heard~What
113 Work  |       Blue like the lines on the globe,~Like the strings of a violin.~
114 Nostal|          apartment building.~The glow in the windows burns with
115 Bourge|       food smells good, we won't go hungry;~If we are thirsty,~            
116 Nostal|         many poems and articles,~Got married and raised children.~
117 Vine  |  sometimes free.~No one asks the grape-pickers~Why the lines are long or
118 Nostal|          else now lives happily.~Greetings, brother, I say to myself,~
119 Cynic |                       until they grow old,~There are those who
120 Found |        sleep and the dense grass grows over them,~The apple blossoms
121 Nostal|        And juniper needles in my hair...~On the boulevard I stop
122 City  |         under the roots of vines hanging from the trellises.~Had
123 Cow   |    meadows.~Over her black horns hangs an electric light~Shining
124 Cynic |    longer!~            Worse can happen in life.~There are those
125 City  |  certainly the way it would have happened.~How fortunate it is that
126 Nostal|     Where someone else now lives happily.~Greetings, brother, I say
127 Found |          And I need not blush at having hung onto this lifeblood,~
128 Cow   |        the warmth,~The warmth of hay gathered in the meadows.~
129 Cow   |         cow chews her cud in the hay-filled barn,~I lean my face against
130 Work  |        dawn,~Lying back with his head in the palms of his hands
131 Poets |       for the girls we loved and heard~What sweet nothings we whispered
132 Nostal|         You who leave your first hearth,~Do you know that it burns
133 Poets |           Do not believe we were heartless! If only you could have
134 Nostal|         the roads of Albania!~To hell with the kitchen, cups and
135 Heart |         mountains,~Full of iron, heroism and grain!~No measure can
136 Cynic |               so suffer!~I am an honest man,~                  I
137 Cow   |          meadows.~Over her black horns hangs an electric light~
138 Nostal|  Entertaining them leisurely and hospitably.~And my friends - wise,
139 Found |         need not blush at having hung onto this lifeblood,~Lifeblood
140 Bourge|         smells good, we won't go hungry;~If we are thirsty,~            
141 Poets |        we teach courses to fight illiteracy,~That we build dams on the
142 Poets |     write of love~Though we were impetuous lovers,~The country needed
143 Poets |     printers were busy with more important things.~ ~ ~
144 Cow   |     great flank~Feeling from her inner depths the warmth,~The warmth
145 Found |          the city,~But deep down inside I am a farmer...~And I need
146       | into
147       | its
148 Nostal|      Falls onto the collar of my jacket.~So many years I lived there
149 Poets |       yet to be born,~And do not judge us for what we have not
150 Nostal|      trousers full of burrs,~And juniper needles in my hair...~On
151 Nostal|      expect real verse!"~And who knows how often with them~I took
152 Poets |         radiant evenings!~But we lacked the time to publish those
153 Poets |      will look like simple monks~Laden with grain and heavy iron
154 City  |       ancient city~(Në qytetin e lashtë)~The two of us stroll through
155       | later
156 City  |         the Art Gallery...~Don't laugh!~That is certainly the way
157 Work  |        blue with dirt~Even as he lay in his coffin.~He looked
158 Nostal|       trees along the pavement a leaf~Falls onto the collar of
159 Cow   |        in the hay-filled barn,~I lean my face against her great
160       | least
161 Found |         with the grass and apple leaves~And flutter past...~Then
162 Found |        my old house,~The house I left once upon a time,~And here
163 Nostal|          door,~Entertaining them leisurely and hospitably.~And my friends -
164       | Let
165 Cow   |                Are you a vet?"~I lift my face from the cow:~            "
166 Nostal|         in excitement,~Where the lights are shining in the windows
167 Cow   |        realises~I cannot write a line without a cow...~ ~ ~
168 Vine  |           The rows of crates are lined up in the vineyard,~Crates
169 Found |        blade of grass between my lips:~It is true that I have
170 Nostal|          jacket.~So many years I lived there in peace and in excitement,~
171 Nostal|   windows~Where someone else now lives happily.~Greetings, brother,
172 Work  |         he lay in his coffin.~He looked as if he were not dead at
173 Nostal|        brother, I say to myself,~Looking in the window from afar,~
174 Cow   |                         The cow~(Lopa)~The cow chews her cud in
175 Cow   |   studies me with her blue eyes,~Lovely, wise and peaceful.~She
176 Work  |          As he would do at dawn,~Lying back with his head in the
177 Nostal|                 First nostalgia~(Malli i parë)~'You who leave your
178 Cynic |        so suffer!~I am an honest man,~                  I respect
179 Nostal|          poems and articles,~Got married and raised children.~How
180 Heart |      iron, heroism and grain!~No measure can contain you,~Only my
181 City  |        ago~And that we could now meet.~In my arms you will be
182 Bourge|           The petty bourgeoisie~(Mikroborgjezi)~What's all the uproar?~            
183 Cow   |      smell the foaming milk.~The milkmaid gently removes the pail~
184 Poets |         we will look like simple monks~Laden with grain and heavy
185 Cynic |           The cynic's monologue~(Monologu i cinikut)~I loved you,~      
186 Cynic |                      The cynic's monologue~(Monologu i cinikut)~I loved
187 Cynic |                        for but a month.~I loved you,~      I love
188 City  |          past,~It comes from the mouths of statues sleeping under
189 City  |             In the ancient city~(Në qytetin e lashtë)~The two
190 Found |    inside I am a farmer...~And I need not blush at having hung
191 Nostal|       full of burrs,~And juniper needles in my hair...~On the boulevard
192       | never
193 Poets |       who spent many a sleepless night,~We, who accomplished many
194 Nostal|     children.~How many sleepless nights I spent~Pondering over my
195 Nostal|           And my friends - wise, noisy, audacious,~Read whatever
196       | Nor
197 Nostal|     pleasure or turning up their noses,~Saying, "We expect real
198 Found |     Sleep old verses from school notebooks.~They sleep and the dense
199       | off
200       | often
201       | once
202       | one
203 Found |         petals.~Visions of these one-time verses come alive~Whenever
204 City  |        With its many windows and orchards,~From every window we hear
205       | other
206 Work  |        back with his head in the palms of his hands
207 Nostal|         First nostalgia~(Malli i parë)~'You who leave your first
208 Poets |          you could have seen~The passions we felt for the girls we
209 Nostal|         From the trees along the pavement a leaf~Falls onto the collar
210 Nostal|      many years I lived there in peace and in excitement,~Where
211 Cow   |      blue eyes,~Lovely, wise and peaceful.~She reflects for a while
212 Found |        apple blossoms cast their petals.~Visions of these one-time
213 Bourge|                              The petty bourgeoisie~(Mikroborgjezi)~
214 Found |         Apple trees that friends planted the day of my departure.~
215 Nostal|      whatever I had written~With pleasure or turning up their noses,~
216 Work  |      those hands silently~Like a plough breaking through the soil.~
217 City  |      From every portal we hear a poem.~Can you feel the sound
218 Cow   |          cow:~            "No, a poet."~She smiles and studies
219 Poets |          poets to come~(Dy fjalë poetëve që vijnë)~We had no time
220 Cynic |       life.~I am straight to the point~            and blunt in
221 Nostal|         sleepless nights I spent~Pondering over my notes and books,~
222 Poets |       The country demanded of us poor poets,~That we teach courses
223 City  |        hear a ballad,~From every portal we hear a poem.~Can you
224 Poets |        those sweet nothings.~Our printers were busy with more important
225 Vine  |       short.~It's enough if they produce~A heavy wine or a twenty-percent
226 Poets |        But we lacked the time to publish those sweet nothings.~Our
227 Work  |                            Work~(Puna)~Under his nails the dirt
228 Poets |        to come~(Dy fjalë poetëve që vijnë)~We had no time to
229 City  |          In the ancient city~(Në qytetin e lashtë)~The two of us
230 Poets | whispered in their ears on those radiant evenings!~But we lacked
231 Nostal|        articles,~Got married and raised children.~How many sleepless
232 Nostal|          wise, noisy, audacious,~Read whatever I had written~With
233 Nostal|        noses,~Saying, "We expect real verse!"~And who knows how
234 Cow   |         reflects for a while and realises~I cannot write a line without
235 Cow   |           wise and peaceful.~She reflects for a while and realises~
236 Cynic |        life.~There are those who remain lovers~                  
237 Cow   |        milk.~The milkmaid gently removes the pail~And waits a moment,
238 Cynic |         man,~                  I respect the truth.~There are those~      
239 Nostal|     again with books and notes~I returned to that small apartment,~
240 Poets |    country needed songs of grain ripening in the fields.~The country
241 Poets |        That we build dams on the rivers,~That we light the flame
242 Found |          come alive~Whenever the road brings me back here,~And
243 Nostal|          with them~I took to the roads of Albania!~To hell with
244 Heart |          Only my heart, that has room for everything!~ ~ ~
245 City  |         doorsteps,~And under the roots of vines hanging from the
246 Found |    brings me back here,~And they rustle with the grass and apple
247 Nostal|       with the kitchen, cups and saucers and spoons,~Let us look
248 Nostal|   happily.~Greetings, brother, I say to myself,~Looking in the
249 Nostal|          turning up their noses,~Saying, "We expect real verse!"~
250 Cow   |          her hands dripping.~She says:~      "Are you a vet?"~
251 Vine  |        lines of verse,~Sometimes scanned, sometimes free.~No one
252 Found |   doorstep~Sleep old verses from school notebooks.~They sleep and
253 City  |  thousand years ago,~The ancient sculptors~Would have fashioned you
254 Poets |           If only you could have seen~The passions we felt for
255 Work  |         But simply dozing before setting out for the fields~As he
256 Vine  |        Why the lines are long or short.~It's enough if they produce~
257 Nostal| boulevard I stop for a moment in silence~In front of my old apartment
258 Work  |       the furrows of those hands silently~Like a plough breaking through
259 Poets |        to you, we will look like simple monks~Laden with grain and
260 Work  |        were not dead at all,~But simply dozing before setting out
261 City  |        marble~And you would have slept under the foundations of
262 Nostal|         notes~I returned to that small apartment,~With my trousers
263 Cow   |        face against her flank, I smell the foaming milk.~The milkmaid
264 Bourge|         in the kitchen;~The food smells good, we won't go hungry;~
265 Cow   |                 No, a poet."~She smiles and studies me with her
266 Work  |        can it be washed out~With soap and water in the bath.~Dirt
267 Poets |       That we light the flame of socialism in the mountains.~Do not
268 Work  |      plough breaking through the soil.~I know those warm fingers,~
269       | someone
270 City  |         a poem.~Can you feel the sound of verse?~It comes with
271 Nostal|    kitchen, cups and saucers and spoons,~Let us look for verse together
272 Poets |         poems,~Could we not have stammered, "Oh, my beloved?"~Do not
273 City  |         will be warmer~Than as a statue in the gallery.~ ~ ~
274 City  |         comes from the mouths of statues sleeping under the doorsteps,~
275 Found |         More than a doorstep - a stone.~Tender grass has covered
276 Cynic |             all their life.~I am straight to the point~            
277 Work  |     lines on the globe,~Like the strings of a violin.~Nor can it
278 City  |          e lashtë)~The two of us stroll through the ancient city,~
279 Cow   |          a poet."~She smiles and studies me with her blue eyes,~Lovely,
280 Found |        sit down under a tree and talk to myself,~A blade of grass
281 Poets |        of us poor poets,~That we teach courses to fight illiteracy,~
282 Cynic |                           on the telephone!~ ~ ~
283 Cynic |             and blunt in tone,~I tell you~      "I don't love
284 Found |       than a doorstep - a stone.~Tender grass has covered both the
285 Found |                 The foundations~(Themelet)~Here are the foundations
286       | Then
287       | these
288 Poets |         busy with more important things.~ ~ ~
289 Bourge|       won't go hungry;~If we are thirsty,~            we can drink;~
290       | this
291       | Though
292 Cynic |                     and blunt in tone,~I tell you~      "I don'
293 Nostal|       are shining in the windows tonight.~I wrote many poems and
294       | too
295 Nostal|      knows how often with them~I took to the roads of Albania!~
296 Nostal|      nostalgia~That can never be transferred elsewhere.~ ~ ~
297 Found |          Then I sit down under a tree and talk to myself,~A blade
298 City  |        of vines hanging from the trellises.~Had you come two thousand
299 Nostal|         small apartment,~With my trousers full of burrs,~And juniper
300 Found |     grass between my lips:~It is true that I have written poems
301 Cynic |                    I respect the truth.~There are those~      who
302 Nostal|         written~With pleasure or turning up their noses,~Saying, "
303 Vine  |        produce~A heavy wine or a twenty-percent raki.~ ~ ~
304 City  |        foundations of a doorway,~Undiscovered for a long time,~And I would
305 Found |       wave their branches,~Trees unknown to me when I was a child,~
306       | until
307 Bourge|    Mikroborgjezi)~What's all the uproar?~            we can sit
308 Cow   |       She says:~      "Are you a vet?"~I lift my face from the
309 Poets |        come~(Dy fjalë poetëve që vijnë)~We had no time to write
310 City  |           And under the roots of vines hanging from the trellises.~
311 Work  |     globe,~Like the strings of a violin.~Nor can it be washed out~
312 Found |      blossoms cast their petals.~Visions of these one-time verses
313 Vine  |                    The vineyard~(Vreshti)~The rows of crates are
314 Cow   |      gently removes the pail~And waits a moment, her hands dripping.~
315 City  |           In my arms you will be warmer~Than as a statue in the
316 Work  |          a violin.~Nor can it be washed out~With soap and water
317 Work  |         washed out~With soap and water in the bath.~Dirt entered
318 Found |     above the grass, apple trees wave their branches,~Trees unknown
319       | whatever
320       | when
321       | Whenever
322       | which
323       | while
324 Poets |     heard~What sweet nothings we whispered in their ears on those radiant
325       | Why
326 Vine  |          if they produce~A heavy wine or a twenty-percent raki.~ ~ ~
327 Vine  |         where raki and exquisite wines lie sleeping,~Rows like
328       | without
329 Bourge|         The food smells good, we won't go hungry;~If we are thirsty,~            
330 Poets |         in the mountains.~Do not wonder, oh poets yet to be born,~
331 Poets |                      A couple of words to poets to come~(Dy fjalë
332 Work  |                                  Work~(Puna)~Under his nails the
333 Cynic |       you no longer!~            Worse can happen in life.~There
334 Nostal|        in the windows tonight.~I wrote many poems and articles,~
335       | yet
336       | your
337 Heart |                       The heart~(Zemra)~Mountains, mountains, mountains,~