SOMETIMES SECRETS

ONLY COME

AFTER THE FALL

Poem for Today - Friday - September 19, 2014

THE FALL

I live between the fire and the plague

with my language—with this mute universe.

I live in the apple garden and the sky,

in the first joy and the first despair,

in Eve's arms

a master of those cursed trees,

a master of the fruits,

I live between the clouds and lightning

in a growing stone, in a book

that teaches the secrets and the fall.

(1961)

© Adonis (‘Aku Ahnad Sa’id) [1930- ],

pages 161-162, in

When the Words Burn,

An Anthology of

Modern Arabic Poetry: 1945-1987,

translated by John Mikhail Asfour