Primo Shllaku

You lived between two fires,
The first, of birth,
Then the womb grew cold.
The second, of immolation.
My memory
Will not accept you.
Voiceless
Yet you unfold,
The flames licking at you.
Graveless,
Stoneless,
Under a mound of ash
You lie
And I sang you
This song,
And I hummed you
This dirge,
Oh, my children born and perished,
Oh, sons of a most ardent oblivion
Night calls you like stars
Day kills you like stars.

Translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie