1. She said: To whom do you send your poems
And for whom do you make their letters into rivers?

2. And for whom do you offer their passions and yearnings
And present from their words bouquets of flowers?

3. And for whom do you embroider their dress, and until when
Will you continue conversing with their night and day?

4. I said: I see you have sent your poetry as a scream
And made from it the sharp cutting sword

5. You made it run in the sand as a plough, but does
The sand give the farmers fruits?

6. Tell me, by your God, whom do you address? For I
See the discourse of the heedless is loss

7. So I answered my questioner with the reply of a poet
Who knew the way to hearts, so he walked

8. For poetry there are people who love its letters
And see in it the meadow and the trees

9. And see in it the stars of a night that
The evening adorned, its lights glittered

10. I am a sailor, I have in the ocean a ship
Made of my letters, that does not fear sailing

11. I address my nation, its men
And its women, its elders and its children