My Room in Ulqin
Even when I am not there
My mother opens the shutters to the sea.
The moon floods in, outlined in a glass,
Filling the room with my figure.
My mother flings the shutters open to the sea
Even when I am not there
To bring in the fresh salt air,
For I am breathing somewhere
On the crest of a breeze
When she leaves the door open.
[Dhoma ime n‘ Ulqin, from the volume Frutat bizare, Prishtina: Rilindja 1996, p. 23.
Translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie]