I Want From Love Only The Beginning...

I want from love only the beginning, the pigeons darn

this day’s dress over my Granada squares.
There’s a lot of wine in the jars for a feast after us.
There are enough windows in the songs for pomegranate blossoms to explode

I leave the Arabian jasmine in the vase, I leave my little heart
in my mother’s closet, I leave my dream laughing in water.
I leave the dawn in the honey of figs, I leave my day and my yesterday
in the alleyway to the orange plaza where the pigeons fly

Was I the one who descended to your feet, for speech to rise
as a white moon in your nights’ milk…Stomp the air
for me to see the street of the flute blue…Stomp the evening
for me to see how marble falls ill between me and you

The windows are empty of your shawl’s gardens. In a different time
I used to know a lot about you, and pick gardenia
off your ten fingers. In a different time, I had pearls
around your neck, and a name on a ring illuminating darkness

I want from love only the beginning, the pigeons flew
over the sky’s last ceiling, the pigeons flew and flew.
A lot of wine will remain, after us, in the jars
and a bit of land is enough for us to meet, and for peace to arrive

- Mahmoud Darwish , translated by Fady Joudah