| Tonight I fly north after bidding
you goodbye.
Today I let you go, it is time.
I was by your side when you suffered.
Did you fear dying?
What did you fear?
At every blow I covered you with kisses.
At every insult I rubbed your eyes and recited a verse
We were calm, do you remember?
We knew you were leaving.
And then came the final blow
and your battered body did not want to keep going,
preferring to remain in that sordid corner,
Among uniformed assassins.
We emerged from that prison into the freshness of the night.
I led you by the hand into a wood of fragrant pines.
The air did you good, it restored your strength.
I know, because you looked as though for the first time
and showed me the curvature of the earth.
And you knew that when you went around that bend
you would find those whom you loved.
Do you remember what you felt
when, gently, they stripped you of fears and horrors?
Later,
Parents
Children
Spouses
Grandchildren,
Great grandchildren,
Newborns and those not yet born
Dipped you into delightful waters
From which you emerged as a rising light.
Unbowed and cheerful you went toward the eternal vastness!
While down below, in the darkness of the lair,
That body now without its master receives a bullet not felt.
Translation: Geoffrey Fox
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