Two Birds

The distance between them is almost zero

In a frantic race in marathons where doping is banned

They compete with one another

Smashing records

Always on the point of coming up with something new

A fight taken seriously

Engines running on diesel

Head up and ready

Legs bound in a crystal belt

Wings always on the trigger

Radar systems sending out warning waves

But there are hidden gods who set the rhythm

The two compete above a world sown up with a needle and thread

Two birds one from Texas the other from Shanghai

Glance furtively at the future

Use falsehoods to identify threats

Two opponents playing chess on the clouds

One showing signs of pain long borne

I don’t know what they’re doing at that height

How they ended up there

What madness this

What art

What trouble

One of them will overthrow the other

That’s where things are heading

We don’t know when and how

But one of them is about to fall

Maybe both

Maybe I should say

There will be a fall

On embers that crackle in the imagination of trees

On songs that flow from air-raid sirens

On wrecks of ships that once were a prophet’s last refuge

This fall

Doesn’t have to mean it’s the end (at least not always)

But it is.

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Traducere în engleză de Catherine Cobham

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