this guy has some absolutely enchanting stuff. originally written in arabic but translated into several other languages. he died about 7-8 years ago i believe.
Nizar Qabbani 1923 - 1998
i love all his stuff. a couple (ok, more than a couple) favorite short pieces are:
**In the summer
I stretch out on the shore
And think of you
Had I told the sea
What I felt for you,
It would have left its shores,
Its shells,
Its fish,
And followed me. **
**My lover asks me:
“What is the difference between me and the sky?”
The difference, my love,
Is that when you laugh,
I forget about the sky. **
**When a man is in love
how can he use old words?
Should a woman
desiring her lover
lie down with
grammarians and linguists?
I said nothing
to the woman I loved
but gathered
love’s adjectives into a suitcase
and fled from all languages. **