Diseased colour

A halo
Of sanctitude
Trembles
In the neon light.

Lemon
Yellow.

Diseased, yet so fair,
I dare not
Look it in the eye,
Afraid I might cause it to perish,
            Not a breath of wind, breath of wind, breath of wind,
There is no pink more feeble
Than that which warmly floods in now,
Diseased colour
Rages
With a temperature, but no fever, no fever, no fever,
Here lies salvation.

[Ngjyrë e sëmurë, from the volume Ndodhi në shpirt, Elbasan: Onufri 1995, p. 11,
translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie]