Hammurabi’s Code

Article 226: If a barber cuts out a slave's branding, cut off the barber's hands.
Article 282: If a slave says to his master: “you are not my master,” cut off the slave's ear.
Article 231: If a man kills another man's slave, he must replace it.

Under Article 226
of Hammurabi’s Code
yesterday
they cut off my fingers
because I tried to make
the oppression's brand a thing of the past.

Under Article 282
of Hammurabi’s Code
last night
they mutilated my face
because I tried to bring
the song of birds from the future
into the present.

They killed me at dawn
under Article 231
of the same code
and replaced me, they believe,
with another slave.

Poor bastards, they don’t know it's always me again
with another hundred fingers
with another hundred thousand ears
and
with a single iron will
forged by generations.


Sonte zemra ime feston , Rilindja, Prishtinë, 1972. Translated by Anna Guercio and Tomislav Kuzmanovic