# Kultura > Letërsia shqiptare > Krijime në gjuhë të huaja >  Ali Podrimja në gjuhën angleze

## AsgjëSikurDielli

*Ghazal*


My salvation
Your body, oh woman,
A green meadow.

My health
Your body, oh woman,
Scorching noon on a branch.

My hatred
Your body, oh woman,
Evening fallen on its knees.

Oh woman, oh woman, deep sea.

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## AsgjëSikurDielli

*The unknown*



What a beautiful bird
But the hunter


blind
          and mute

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## shigjeta

Te dyja poezite flasin per mjeshterine e poezise se Ali Podrimes, megjithese ne anglisht.
Faleminderit qe i solle ne forum ASD!

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## AsgjëSikurDielli

*Go back to Homer's verse*


Go back to Homer's verse
Go back to where you came from
This is not your age go back
Free men from themselves
And shadows free them from masks
And flights free them from insomnia
And silence free them from fever
And rain this is not your age
Go back to Homer's verse
Troy has fallen and long has it been
Since men have sung the Marseillaise

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## AsgjëSikurDielli

*Rain in a legend*


If I throw a stone into the river
Silence runs a fever


If I sing an ancient song
Silence is overcome by insomnia


If I look for myself in a game
Silence has a headache


It rains and rains
In a legend now and forever

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## angeldust

*Paris, native land*

We'll go to Paris
There we shall lay our stone
Teuta, Genti will not be expecting us 
The savage Roman hordes will not be expecting us
No one will be expecting us
To Paris we shall go
We shall hang our dreams on stork wings 
At a fountain we shall wash our eyes, our wart-covered hands
We shall leave the Balkan nights behind us
            the dances, the songs, the ballads, the tales
The flute alone we shall take with us
To play whenever we are homesick
            when we get lost in the crowds of drunks
            in the shadows
            amongst the rats
Late at night in the streets of Paris in the frantic metro 
We shall smell the fragrance of the quince from our native land
With our fingers we will talk of vile times
We shall not step on any ants
We shall not frighten any birds
We shall vent neither hellfire nor spleen
            upon the head of man
We shall not bow to a torpid Europe
            nor to any deranged gods
Promise me Lum Lumi
That we will not forget our native land

(Paris 1981)

[Parisi, vendlindja, from the volume Lum Lumi, Prishtina: Rilindja 1982, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie, first published in English in Who will slay the wolf. Selected poetry by Ali Podrimja, New York, Gjonlekaj Publishing 2000, p. 125]

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## angeldust

*It is the Albanian's fault*

It is the Albanian's fault
That he breathes
And walks on two legs

That I take tranquillizers
And swat flies all day
In the Toilet

It is the Albanian's fault
That he besmirches your wife
And frightens my family

That my hand cannot reach the apple
On the highest branch
That he has filled the Well with dead words

It is the Albanian's fault
That not more of Turkey exists,
More of America of Norway

            That the Gulag is so far away

That they chose me and sent me
To sniff him out
Does death smell

It is all the more the Albanian's fault
That he does not eat
Or close his eyes and sleep

That our sewers are broken
And the Catacombs of the Balkans
Have fallen into ruins

It is the Albanian's fault
That he whiles away the time under the moon
And breaks windows and stirs up muddy water

That he speaks Albanian that he eats Albanian 
            that he shits Albanian

It is the Albanian's fault
The Albanian is the one at fault
For all my undoings

Both for my broken tooth
And for my frozen smile
So therefore: BULLET

Ha ha ha 
Ha ha 
Ha

May God have mercy!

[Fajtor është shqiptari, from the volume Fund i gezuar, Prishtina: Rilindja 1988, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie, first published in English in Who will slay the wolf. Selected poetry by Ali Podrimja, New York, Gjonlekaj Publishing 2000, p. 193]

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## angeldust

*Or, or*

Should you long
            to see Albanians
Go down to the train station in a big city

Worn-out shoes they wear
And white socks

Or or

On Marienplatz or at the Eiffel Tower
            just whistle a heroic tune
Into a circle you go
            there you have them all those rigid faces

But do not be frightened off
For solitude can make you sick
That awesome brutality of cement

(Munich, 18 April 1992)

[Ose,ose, from the volume Buzëqeshje në kafaz, Tirana, Lidhja e Shkrimtarëve 1993, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie, first published in English in Who will slay the wolf. Selected poetry by Ali Podrimja, New York, Gjonlekaj Publishing 2000, p. 243]

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## AsgjëSikurDielli

*The black cat*


On my journey
A black cat follows me

And my soul says to me
You'll get stuck half way

And the song says to me
You'll never sing me aloud

And the light says to me
The blind man is still blind

And the dream says to me
Look for me awake

So come and say the word
When you don't know whom you love or hate

Come and believe the face in the mirror

A black cat follows me
On my journey

It will dictate the final hour

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## AsgjëSikurDielli

*The illness of my family
for my father Hamzë Podrimja*


My father God bless him died of a stomach ulcer
Before having his say about Love and Mankind
My mother God bless her thrice was operated in the Hospital
Thrice the Wolf howled around our house
A tumour in my brother burst into madness
He gave up the ghost beside a fountain when no one was watching
My sister we buried three meters deep
In the shade of a poplar we buried her one summer's evening
With all the pus of a filthy world
I, I shall wander a planet drowned in dreams
Farther and farther I shall flee from the blood and the self
If my nerves are altered in the tambourine of time
Oh illness of my family
Confounded game
Of fate.

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## AsgjëSikurDielli

*Requiem*


Night burnt out in my eye
Gives up the ghost
In alleyways

Somewhere in a forest somewhere in a poem
Howls the wolf 
Wants to devour the sky, the earth

Over the crooked roof
Burns the moon
Radiant

And the song of confused birds
Ends deep   
In the world of dreams

Mother    
Oh mother interminable pain

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## AsgjëSikurDielli

*The day of the butterfies*


Under the lids of your eyes
Somewhere perished
The day of the butterflies

My cry     
Has slain
The drousing distances

The day of the butterflies
Perished somewhere
Under the heavy lids
of your eyes

Mother   
Oh mother
interminable pain

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## AsgjëSikurDielli

*Between two ages*


Between two loves
You live   

Between two fires
Burns the memory of you

Between two words
Rises your monument

Between two ages
I search for you

Mother    
Oh mother interminable pain

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## AsgjëSikurDielli

*Ballad of man*


I know a Man
He wanders naked through the world

Instead of a tie
He binds a serpent around his neck

Instead of a shirt
He puts on a wolf's skin

All the time
He is undressing, undressing

In a public place

No one sees him
And he wanders naked through the world

A Man who has lost everything

Feelings
Eyes

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## AsgjëSikurDielli

*The stolen flame*


How did the serpent bite him?

He said to the Lion: quiet!
The Lion knelt before his sword.

The people said: it's been a long time
Since we've seen such a spectacle in our circus.

But how did the serpent manage to bite him?

In our town the children now report
That He went to get the flame
And that one rainy day the people stole it from him.

And how did the serpent bite him?

He said to the Lion: quiet!
And the Lion knelt before his tenebrous eyes.

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## AsgjëSikurDielli

*And you dead*


It was summer
Overhead the sun
Shadows, you around Europe

From that horrible journey
You returned one day with eyes wide open
You entered your father's poem without knocking

There you are in safety Lumi
I swear no harm
Will come to you

It was summer
The sun in the west
And you dead land

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## AsgjëSikurDielli

*Who will slay the wolf

(for F. Altimari)*

And the gentleman said

Should you happen to come upon
An Albanian and a wolf
Slay the Albanian

When the Albanian heard the saying
He smiled
And rolled himself a cigarette

If you slay me
            my poor friend
Who will slay
The wolf

Poor herds

(Cosenza 1988)

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## AsgjëSikurDielli

*When will you speak out, Ali Podrimja*

The star goes out with a bang
You look us in the eye and gulp
Never do you turn your back on us, Ali Podrimja

You sit out there in the cold and remain silent for years
            you still believe
            in mankind

They counterfeit your name
            your family name signature date of birth
            mother's name father's name place of birth
                        of your ancestors
            childhood tales dances games
            heroes songs laments celebrations

They make fun
            of your ancient language your people
            and spew torrents of abuse

And you remain silent, Ali Podrimja
            you still believe
            in mankind

In sombre vaults in mediaeval cellars
            strange concoctions appellations ruins curses
            barking pursuits arrests
            the savage hunt

Candles and incense are lit are quenched the words the bodies
                        the reservations drop away
            the children take flight under the wings of fate
            a Woman weaves and tears up the fabric
            in a paper Tower

In the sky overhead loom shadows crows ravens
            you comb golden locks
            with a handful of earth in your lap
            you set off for distant lands

In the fashionable part of Europe you are an Albanais
In Italy an Arbëresh in Greece an Arvanitas
In Turkey elhamdulillah an Arnaut
In America canned meat
            and nothing else
            nothing else

Who knows how many languages your God speaks

And you remain silent Ali Podrimja
            you still believe
            in mankind

But but
When will you speak out good man
Or _must you first be born_

Why does the moss cover your roof

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## angeldust

*Take this stone*

Take this stone and cast it
Wherever you wish
            If you wish

Beyond my thread and tribe
Beyond the nine wounds
            of Gjergj Elez Alia

Nail it if you wish
            wall it in

            Take this stone

Baptize it or leave it nameless
I have changed the time, the climate

Leave it without land, without sky

Take this stone and cast it
Wherever you wish

Its strength makes us immortal

_[Merreni këtë guri, from the volume Credo, Prishtina: Rilindja 1976, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie, first published in English in Who will slay the wolf. Selected poetry by Ali Podrimja, New York, Gjonlekaj Publishing 2000, p. 69]_

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## angeldust

*If*

If a people
Have no poets
And no poetry of their own
For a National Anthology
Then treachery and barking
Will do the trick

_[Nëse, from the volume Fund i gezuar, Prishtina: Rilindja 1988, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie, first published in English in Who will slay the wolf. Selected poetry by Ali Podrimja, New York, Gjonlekaj Publishing 2000, p. 197]_

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