1. On his birthday, his candle betrayed him,
So his tears hurried to light up the feast.

2. As if his two eyes... were competing in loyalty to him,
Racing... and the fastest tear was the most loyal!

3. A scissor lurked on the calendar page,
Plunging at the neck of the days, cutting them off.

4. In the candelabra he saw his years as corpses,
Slain, so he leaned on a bier to bid them farewell.

5. Music did not welcome him to fortify him,
Against time, nor did it stand to say goodbye.

6. If only the mirrors, after his features were shattered,
Could count the faces that spent the night deceiving him!

7. On his birthday, his beloved was absent,
While his heart brimmed with elixir, intoxicating it.

8. It shook with a rebellion flaming up in his soul,
Yearning for a rose to suppress it with love!

9. Yearning for a woman whose creed deemed
That passion for passion sanctions it!

10. On his birthday... the memories crept
Like the steps of the clock's hands, incessantly stinging him.

11. He recalled the beginnings... no midwife greeted him,
To watch over destiny, no wet nurse suckled him.

12. Weeping over his mother: Did the pain of divorce
Equal what the days now torment him with?!

13. On his birthday... a voice rumbled in his mouth,
But from the gut its source:

14. "Unbridle my camel... I have a journey
To myself, whose wellspring in the depths is not yet dry!"

15. He roamed the unseen like a bird seeking
A bullet of consciousness to strike him down.

16. The shackles of illusion kept suspending him
To the wind - how can the wind blow to slap him!

17. He found life a shirt... riddled with holes,
So he kept mending it with meaning.

18. He walked on suspicion in his soul, so
Legions of ants in his flanks marched after him.

19. Limited of spirit by what his spirit
Bore for the earth, love, which it never ceased distributing.

20. Nothing panicked him more in his darkness
Than a thought in the darkness of his head frightening him.

21. If a pen straddled one of his fingers,
His finger would gleam with the brilliance of diamond.

22. On his birthday... he still screams in
The wilderness of time, but none can hear him.

23. He listens to his self attentively, as a convert
To a new religion, to the one who could convince him.

24. I met him on the train of life, and our
First ribs intertwined there.

25. A riddle seeking its meaning, and they converged
Like text converging with its author in longing.

26. I met him and we became one, dawn broke
Smiling on a lightning flash adorning it.

27. As if when we walked: I and I,
A river flowed, and the gurgling of water followed it.

28. What is love? I said - Sum it up, he told me: A bell
In the heart we never learned how to ring.

29. The train went on, but it has no eyes
To bend down to the blind track and lift it up.

30. And whenever the space narrowed around us,
We'd seek refuge in a female expansiveness.

31. A raven sighed at us, its darkness brimmed
With night... wherein a star disputes its position.

32. The raven said: Take from me the ceremonies
Of your grief, then do as I used to do.

33. We said: Your tenderness has prolonged the road for us
Toward absence, so tell us how to return it.

34. He said: Plant a shadow behind you to guide you back,
For what shadow betrayed those who planted it on earth!

35. We asked and he replied... we relegated the question to
A doubt, at times dispelling it, at times gathering it.

36. O how the end leaned with our arms
Toward farewell, but its arms could not help it!

37. The train went on, and we declared mourning for it
Since the space of one of the riders dried up.

38. O driver of life... we reached our station
Of life... is there a fare we can pay?

39. Stop at the first coffin you pass by,
There where we take off the shirt of time.