Old Chamber for a New Love

(Stancë e vjetër për dashurinë e re)

(for Elvana)

When we, without a word, lie down for the night
You will be the River, I will be the Log
And hardly will you be able, with your lips pressed on mine,
In squirming and quivers, to detach from my body...
Nowhere will you spill a crumb,
And I will envy neither the living nor the dead.

Then, they will baptize us... Yet you, unwearied
In the flow... You will be the River which bears the Log,
One day promised to five oceans.
I will be a banner for those tribes.
And if we find no fair names
I will perhaps call you Anna.

As if borrowed, the years which never return
From winter to winter will tumble to their fate.
Light and long the road we embark on,
Like every vehicle which strays from its goal,
The frontiers will appear in the end,
Though we have journeyed but half the way.

I will be naked, you will be bare,
The two of us crossing hills and vales.
In the law of the flow we will willingly leave
That land, where we never had foes,
And mighty hands on other banks
Will one day meet in that dry bed.

Tirana 2000