Twelve Days Without You

 
Listen, babui, are you listening?
That bottlebrush tree by the window—
two little birds, names unknown, have built a tiny household there. What a sight!
Very soon three chicks will arrive in their home.
You wonder, three—how do I know? I just feel it, three will come! Exactly three, I can count them already!
When shall we name their babies? Won't you come to love them?


A new bud appeared today on the rose bush in the blue tub on the roof.
That bud's face looks exactly like yours.
Red-lipped, tender—in just a few days it will bloom into exuberant youth.
Won't you touch its face?


Hey babui-love! Can you hear me?
That tube light in my room—
a lonely spider has woven its web there.
It has no one, I think, solitary just like me.
You know, when I swept the room today, I didn't break its little home.


I thought, if instead of being human in this life I had been that spider,
would I have liked being so homeless, tell me?
Won't you lose yourself gazing into its web?


This afternoon, a white cat came to our house from somewhere.
A female cat. Probably had a fight with her husband and left home.
I told her so much about you.
That you fight too, scold me terribly...for reasons and no reasons,
then the moment you get a chance you shower me with love and drive me wild—I told her everything.


I explained to her, in married life there are bound to be little quarrels and sulks!
But does that mean you abandon everything? After that,
I treated her with care, fed her a bowl of milk, and sent her back to her home.
Don't you want to see her?


Babui, see how the world has shriveled up! How silent everything is around us!
You know, I'm longing so much to see you!
When will this sickness of the world be cured, tell me?
When will we meet again?
When can I kiss you without a single worry?
When can I touch you freely without wearing gloves?


But what if this sickness of the world never heals?
What if, fallen to this sickness, I too become a star in the sky?
Then what will happen, babui?
The bird babies will never get their names?
The love trapped in loneliness in the spider's web will never be witnessed?
We'll never see the red rosebud bloom into youth?
I'll never again hold you tight to my chest and cry for a long, long time?


I keep feeling
that days, ages, thousands of years have passed...without seeing you!
A whole twelve days have gone by without seeing you—count them one by one. Can you imagine, babui?