*
Anyone who falls into
an arabic night should know that
laws there are ruthless and
brutal at first one hears tingle
tangle from the high stone
walls someone drops a rope
with a basket leave the dates
alone! don’t eat them that’s
how they stop drovers if the rope
is strong enough allow yourself to be
pulled up
for three days I was smiling and
bowing and was just about to eat
the rugs when god
caught me
naked.
—tr. from the Slovenian by Sonja Kravanja
—from Rattle #33, Summer 2010
__________
Slovenian poet Tomaž Šalamun (1941–2014) was one of Europe’s most prominent poets of his generation and was a leader of the Eastern European avant-garde. (link)
