At the Riverside

At times how short is
The distance
To the riverbank

When the guitar calls,
The river surges,
The voices of the fish falter.

You wondrously
Wake the breeze
Slumbering in its lover's hair
And give it free rein.

[Bu zë lumit, from the volume Plagë uji, Prishtina,
Rilindja 1990, p. 49. Translated from the Albanian
by Robert Elsie]