Mic Sokoli Talks to Death

Away with you
I have no feelings for you,
I won't recognize you as my king.
To the gardener who will be born,
I will cast
Sunflower seeds
At the midday of desire
And in the evening of pity.
Away with you,
My head,
My shield,
The embrasure
From which
Lightning
Sparks and snuffs out the stars
For our darkest night,
For our longest night,
Let the dogs devour my skull.
Away with you,
The unborn gardener of my people awaits me.

[Mic Sokoli i flet vdekj es, from the volume Plagë uji,
Prishtina, Rilindja 1990, p. 32. Translated from the
Albanian by Robert Elsie]