Bonsai of Thoughts (Translated)

Bonsai of Thoughts: One Hundred Twenty-Three

1. I am your absence.
Bring me back.

2. An undying city
follows me
everywhere.

3. Cold cold mornings,
the restless rumbling
of swelling clouds.

4. All words end at dusk.
And the clouds come one by one
to dissolve in silence.

5. Dust scattered on the road
and dry leaves
bear witness to the wind.

6. Beyond the barbed wire
at the border,
some flowers fallen
on the ground—
the child gathers them.

7. This morning
the clouds
wash the sky clean...

8. All my solitude,
and with it a solitary stone
plays with the river's waves.

9. Drought...
The chattering river's
hushed voice.

10. Only
a single biscuit
lies on the plate.
This is what we call solitude.

11. After going to the funeral
keep your mouth shut.
Let them think
you too are grieving.

12. Sometimes
the scent of perfume...
recalls everything
but the name.

13. Suddenly, suddenly
in shadows upon shadows
she returns!

14. The tune
the bamboo flute plays—
in it
someone's departure, someone's arrival.

15. In the cupped palm
of my folded hands
solitude and I
live together.

16. The hand that holds a paper boat
is the sea's rival.

17. Winter's melancholy sky
befriends that foolish boy
who never learned to ask.

18. When the air grows heavy,
stretch both hands toward the sea
thinking of old times.

19. When phone conversations end
what remains...
some satisfied regrets.

20. The envelope of the last letter
written just before his death—
no one has found the courage
to open it, even today.
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