The old room

I feel my way in the dark

in a room meager already old

smelling of shut-ins

blind are my eyes as good as

there is no gleam of light!

Darkness!

forever and ever, everything black

no color else

a tumbledown room

quite fallen, hell it was.

Too bad

and so much the better

if that old room’s a ruin

if sweet lights turn about no more there

and if a song’s sweetness

is extinct and no more’s heard

Too bad

it was only sham put up

forged by a voice

for all this

must be changed!

S. Rukiah
tr. after Damais