Zef SEREMBE
POETRY
Song of longing
You are angry with me and I know not why,
Oh, fairest apple of paradise lost,
What have I done in my misery that you leave me thus,
How long shall I be deprived of all my joy?
Oh, how bitter were the days
When I saw joy vanish from your eyes
Which had filled this soul with such pride
And struck my breast with passion.
No longer did I see your forehead
At the window, embroidered with sunbeams,
Nor your fair lips, radiant heavens
Now thickly veiled in cloud.
Near your breast, my heart seethes with fire
And my mind with worry,
No respite do I encounter, no peace do I find,
Maid, you have ruined my life forever.
[Kënthimë tharosi,
from the volume Vjersha, Milan 1926, translated from the
Albanian by Robert Elsie, first published in English in History
of Albanian literature, New York 1995, vol. 1, p. 178] |
Albanian Literature in Translation
Early
Authors (16th - 18th centuries)
