Albania

Albania is greater than its soil,
Than the sky stretching upwards above it.
It is the ancient dream of a ship,
A yacht kissing the depths.

It flaps and flutters in two halves,
Wings beating to sear bloody wounds.
It is not part of this planet, but a star,
A tear fallen from the eye of the Lord.

1991

[Shqipëria, from the volume Rrethinat e Atlantidës,
Tirana 2002, p. 49. Translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie.]