The Eternal River

That river
On its meandering course
Quenches thirst,
Drenches flowers,
Fills grain bins
And deepens the furrows in the cliff sides
In which the dew dreams.

In that river,
Life and Death
Stroll hand in hand
Like twins off to some starry school
To learn
Why milk seethes in a mother's bosom,
How the sea awakens in the lap of the moon,
And where in the tides
We search for our lost faces.

Today we are,
Yesterday we were,
Tomorrow we will be
In that eternal river.

[Lumi i pe rjetshëm, from the volume Plagë uji,
Prishtina, Rilindja 1990, p. 41. Translated from
the Albanian by Robert Elsie]