SO MUCH SILENCE AROUND (en anglais)

ENGLISH :

So Much Silence Around

To Ali Prodrimja

Where do they go, the people I love

Dressed in red robes

At the height of the evening twilight?

Where do they lead, the coppery autumn wind,

The glorious voices of the blue tits?

All that remains here,

Filled with fresh sunlight,

Are the voluptuous clusters of grapes

And my happy childhood

When I sat by the window

Which opened onto infinity.

Tell me, Ali Prodrimja,

Tell me, solitary friend of rushing waters,

Brother of the mountains of Rugova,

Where do they take us, the mares of hurrying time,

The bodies that my hands

Have so long dressed

In light!

Translated from the French of Athanase Vantchev de Thracy by Norton Hodges

 August 2012