A poem by beautiful Uzbek poetess Zebo Mirzo
translated by my friend Kirk Greenway
Give Your Soul Only Once to Kiss
I accept you may steal away
As wild orchids sing vespers
Crying tears, bitter, gray,
Wistful lips converse in whispers
Pleading in your desert sunlight.
You ignore,
and pangs of love that flow
From my eyes begin to flood
the way
All right, you alight,
But do not take from your heart
My blood
My last kiss to mark this
Departure’s end…
You possess me, my most precious.
I am grateful for the days we spend,
And never ask you to stop loving life.
Never end this story and never find our end!
Look, the clouds and moon compete in endless strife
In my breast, a senseless night does rend,
Having forded a swift river, dark and deep.
Will we find each other in the day?
Say no farewell, and, in my eyes, stay.
Look, left in the current, in sadness I will drown.
Take my life, not your own,
And wholly take my bliss,
Give your soul only once to kiss!
###
Translated by Kirk Greenway
Photo taken from the translator’s Facebook page
