A poem written by Nada Menzalji
Trans. Valentina Viene
I told you!
If I light up a cigarette I'll smoke the world.
It's not tobacco that I'm talking about.
It's my subtle way to say
I am gifted enough to be addicted to you too.
Precisely as I wanted it,it was a warning sign,more vague than it should be.
Adrenaline flooded profusely.
Those who rescued us
Thought I was a mermaid,
The one who loved the prince
And sold her beautiful tail for legs.
And when they failed to recognise you
They assumed you had to be
"The handsomest drowned man in the world".
I wanted to remind you of the window,
that wooden green window
whose handle trapped the sleeve of your broad smile.
Did you close it?
Or did you forget
and the shutters are still open?
I also forgot to erase the kisses
from the memories of the rooms,
those rooms that gossip
about what they saw
when they suffer from loneliness.
They wrecked the house
But the scene remained intact:
the man laughing as he forgot
to close the window,
the woman, counting the spoils on the mirror.
A little bite, on the way to Everest,
under which both sides left their fingerprints,
without writing their names
or the date.