Sol 5.6

  1. When I was a student, I thought I understood

    every secret of life contained in the universe.

  2. When I was a student, I grew impassioned and vowed

    to set right whatever wrong became clear to me.

  3. When I was a student, upon a cloud I painted

    the world’s smile on sweet lips.

  4. When I was a student, I imagined and dreamed

    that I would wear a cloak made from my sun’s fringe.

  5. When I was a student, I thought I had arrived—

    only to find I had yet to set foot upon the earth.

  6. The springtime of dreams ended, and I emerged

    to collide with reality, shocked by what it dealt me.

  7. The gaze of my eyes is wounded whenever it turns,

    as though the greatest mote were lodged in their sockets.

  8. If I tried to walk, I found myself standing still;

    and if I raised my voice, its echo never came to me.

  9. Truths caught me unawares before I had even begun,

    and time ran faster than what hope had held.

  10. The branch of imagination I had planted broke,

    and my breast knotted itself around ninety cries of “Ah.”

  11. Yet despite all this, I was not defeated;

    I went on trampling thorns barefoot.

  12. The more my pains increased, the more I endured,

    between ice and the embers of the ghada tree.

  13. I did not defeat time, but neither was I defeated;

    I wrung my wellspring from the depths of solid rock.

  14. ()

    All of it for the sake of a beloved I loved—

    my homeland, the land of people with heads held high.

  15. In her soil I buried the dearest of my loved ones,

    and in her sky I gather the dream and its longing.

Sol 5.6