"Myths" By Nazik al-Malaika, translated (1980, California)

                                      "Myths"

They said life
is the color of dead eyes
is the footsteps of a killer in disguise
and it's wrinkled days
are poisoned garment that shouts of death
and our dreams
are the smiles in ailing eyes
that await their end

They said hope
is the pout of thirsting lips
that taste water in the cup
in a painting on the wall
is the sad wing of the single bird
who circles his fallen nest, and waits
for morning and miracle
that will turn the pieces into home

They said silence
is the stupid myth brought by nobody
that listens with both ears and then
leaves his soul hidden beneath the ashes
the screams of fences that he heard not
and pieces of torn paper, dust
chairs of ancient rooms, and glass
covered with webs of an aging spider
and a coat hung on the wall

They said youth,
but when I asked they spoke of years
that when they come fog escapes
and they spoke of a heaven
behind a mirage
and of an oasis
that when I reached I found the dreams of tomorrow
crucified at the slammed door
of the oasis

They said eternity,
I found it a shadow lying chill
over the cemeteries where life contracts
I found it a word on singing lips
damning their past
singing and dying frivolously 
thay said eternity, I found nothing but death

They said and said
thoughts the winds took up
where death tracks the dull words
the tired who never rest
the lost who nowhere will ever get
that said and I said and nothing to say
such a myth is imagination's irony

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