baby why you gotta make me kill and eat you
(from the Macedonian folk song.)

Jana

The falcon flies over the River Solza
Why does the wolf lie in the rushes?
It was the maiden Jana
her fair hair, her flashing eyes

White throat, red lips
Why did you falter by my den?
White lips, red throat
Why did you falter by my den?

Go and tell them
That I am dying of love.
Go and tell them
That I am dying of love.

Four dark wounds are in my lover's side.
Astaghfir Allah!
Four dark wounds are in my lover's side.
The first from birth
The second from life
The third from death
And the fourth is mine.



Lezginka

The storm is a beast,
and the body is mine
The lightening is heartbeat,
and the thunder is blood;
and I am coming to you
from across the forest,
La illah ha il Allah.

The wind is your scent
From beyond the damp earth.
The rain is your voice
From beyond the shadows;
and I am coming to you
from across the dawn,
La illah ha il Allah.

I will know happiness
When night is on my back.
I will know happiness
When I have bloodied my feet;
when the rain covers me
like the body of a lover,
La illah ha il Allah.

I will not know peace
Until I have what the thunder awoke
I will not know peace
Until he has me exhausted
when I no longer know
where my footsteps land, or why,
La illah ha il Allah.

Assah!

Darkness, draw back
like the sleeve of a woman
Sun, rise up and cleanse me
Light up the rain of my tears
Leaves bend down and brooks overflow
I am thirsty for him, thirsty,
La illah ha il Allah!

Come to me, oh, come
I am your grey wolf
Come to me, oh come
I am dying, I am dying
Let me come to you,
endless run,
La illah ha il Allah!

Assah!

God, grant me the breath
so that I may kiss him again
God, grant me the sun
so that I may see him again
God, grant me the ground,
so that I may take him in the rushes,
La illah ha il Allah.

God, grant me the vision
to carve his likeness with my words.
God, grant me the strength
to build the tower of my verse.
God grant me tirelessness
and I will make him immortal,
La illah ha il Allah.

Tell Me How You've Lived


Tell me how you've lived, pure one, beautiful one
The way that he loved you, and the way
You loved him too.

I want to know what is ineffable
Beneath the tremor of his glances,
And the tenderness of his touch,
The trembling eternity of first love
And the refuge of a secret world.
The peace that came to nothing
The love that rose up and washed away.

You are the path of wind in a wild field
The cool moss that grows beneath a stone.

You are the grass between the slats of a train-track
You are the way the ague-leaf fits my palm.

Tell me how you've suffered, white one, golden one
The river where you dropped your gun,
And where you bled your blood.

Speak to me as though I have not suffered,
Or like I've suffered all mankind has known.
My soul is as vast as the sky
Above the steppes, but my body is so small
And my years are few in number.
Yet I have seen this and I must bear it
I must bear it because there is no one else who knows.

You are the transient rain on a still summer night,
The taste of salt that lingers on the shore.

You are the skyline of a city whose name I do not know,
You are the hidden whiteness of the midnight fog.

Tell me how to love, pure one, beautiful one
The way that I loved you, and the way
You loved me too.

I am not a man or woman, just a poet.
My secrets go back a thousand years.
I see them leave red stains in my footprints
I see them pour from these two lips like blood.
A lifeless line through silent mountains.
I have no other way of loving.
White one, golden one,
I cannot save your life.