Granada Gypsies, The

The heart will never stop protesting against the rain.

Lovers will never stop complaining about the sea.

A thousand oak leaves fall on the embezzler's grave.

Each time the singer begins to sing, her cries call

In the Macedonians whose sons and daughters

Died during the night when God was born.

The Garden of Eden drew water from the Euphrates.

Some suffering has been steady since Noah.

It is our Babylonian hands that are clapping tonight.

I want the coffin-bearers of the rich to stumble!

I want the toad to climb up the church wall tonight!

I want the ant to gobble the black sugar down!

If you're still alive, tell us again how Jesus

Forgave Judas, and how Judas buried his coins

In a barnyard trampled by sacrificial goats.

If a singer complains about old people at all,

He doesn't sing with us. It's clear that our parents

Were the greatest enemies that death ever had.

ROBERT BLY'S most recent book is The Winged Energy of Delight: Selected Translations (HarperCollins, 2004).

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