I’m regretful and bitter, my friend, oh sea.

I’m asking for your protection,

accompanied by shrouds and camphor.

Be then

a coffin for my secrets

and a priest, 

receiving my confessions.

as my sins grow heavier.

I wish I am forgiven

In the era of deflection from piety

to the wilderness of lechery,

for making the purity my lamp 

and  love my heartbeat.

Probably my darkly wicked youth

will cure me of my white head,

crowned with silver.

I am my own enemy, O my friend, my sea.

abandoning my future for my past,

clutching distant gardens,

deserting the paradise of the grove and the adjacent field!

from: A Dress of water for a Body  of Ember (Damascus. 2016)

Translated by : Saleh Razzouk and Rebecca Ruth Gould with a permission from the poet