A Mirage of Eliz
Why
did you Eliz show up in my dream tonight?
We
came across each other in front of a huge old house
At
dusk, in the light of a lamp on the street
Walking
and smiling
With
open arms to embrace me
You
had worn a green, pale sweater
Your
smile was bright
Coming
to me like a light breeze
My
heart was pounding faster and faster
Approaching
nearer, endless anxiety
But
in the end you did not meet me
Just
diverted your walk to nowhere
Why
did you wake me up, what's happening?
Is
anything worrying you or has anyone died?
Has
your mother or any of your beloved passed away?
The
last time you wrote me you said your grandmother passed away
But
ten years have passed, maybe more
The
water that flowed in the stream now has become a river
Or
you will die in my memories,
Or
you will burn me with your ember love
To
turn me into black coal
Are you
beautiful as once? Did you become an unknown woman?
Did
I become someone you do not know?
Did
I remain hostage to your love?
Are
you a vision, an obsessed idea I cannot get rid of?
Are
you the muse of my sorrow?
Are
you the longing of non-returning youth?
Are
you the illusion I still live in?
Are
you longing that is destroying me?
Do
you dream emerging one night only?
And
then lose in the endless darkness?
O
what is this breeze blowing Elysian Fields?
Why
cannot I feel all these girls
Who
smile and talk to me, why I do not feel that light
Entering
my soul and blind my eyes?
You
brought in me a sweet spring breeze
Lasting
as much as a mirage of Eliz....
Granit Zela
Granit Zela is a contemporary
Albanian poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist and translator. Born in
1979 in Kukes, northeast of Albania, he was graduated from British and American
Studies and Albanian Literature in Tirana. He obtained a Ph.D. degree in Literature
on the poetics of the American postmodernist writer Donald Barthelme. Zela has
published poetry volumes “Apocalypse” (2000), “In my Hermetic Studio” and
“Altar Word” (2011). His first poetry volume was awarded “The First Song” prize
by the League of Albanian Writers. Other books include the short stories: “Willing
deaths” (2002), novel “Dodona” (2006) essay volumes: “Letters of Darkness”
(2011) and “Sigh on banality” (2009). He is translator into Albanian of William
Faulkner’s novels “Light in August” and “As I Lay Dying”. Zela is currently
Assistant Professor of English in Department of Liberal Arts, American
University of Middle East, Kuwait City, Kuwait.
Tags:
Poetry