It’s a long time since we saw each other and I feel
I am forgetting you. The memory of you
Dies in me day by day,
The memory of your hair
And everything about you.
Now I’m looking everywhere
For a place to drop you
A line, a verse, or crystal kiss –
And so depart.
If no grave will receive you,
No marble nor crystal sepulcher –
Will I have to keep you always with me
Half-dead and half-alive ?
If I can’t find a chasm to drop you into
I’ll look for a lawn or field
Where I will scatter you softly
Like pollen.
Perhaps I’ll trick you into an embrace –
And go away irrevocably
And neither of us will know the other.
This is forgetting isn’t it?
Ismail Kadare
Writer, poet
Albanian League of Writers and Artists 