The Crystalline Side of Time

There’s sunlight and your words like thunder split my being
there’s a flashlight in my Soul
perhaps you waited hardly– out of empty stomach to see a smile in his face
there are no tears in a full stomach you shall know this too
and I see the smile of ignorant as the most ignorant
one can be – I’m the one who stands as rock and watch with binoculars
down the lake and the swan couple I see in the pond playing the erotic game
perhaps you recall how we met in a Crystalline side of Time
and you hold now the empty shell echoing my name
the war ended roughly two decades ago and we still Love
as mad as no one can be, in here where the age of smirks rolls its dice and
in a place of serenity we call heart

– Fahredin Shehu

translated from Albanian by the author

Ana kristaline e kohës

Ka dritë dielli dhe fjalët e tua ndajnë qenien time
ka një rrufe në shpirtin tim
ndoshta kot ke pritur të shohësh buzëqeshjen nga barku bosh i tij
nuk ka lotë as në stomakun e plotë, këtë mbase e di po ashtu
dhe shoh buzëqeshjen e injorantit si askush tjetër
që mund të jetë – Unë jam ai, i cili qëndron si shkëmb dhe me dylbi shikon
atje poshtë në liqe dhe çifti i mjellmave atje në pellg lozin vallen erotike
mbase të kujtohet si u takuam në anën kristaline të kohës
e tani ti mban guaskën boshe tek jehon emrin tim
lufta mbaroi afro dy dekada më parë dhe ne ende duam
si të çmendur si askush tjetër, këtu brenda ku epoka e të vetëkënaqurve
qeshë nër buzë, hedh zarin e sajë
në vendin e rehatisë që e quajmë zemra

– Fahredin Shehu

‘Ana kristaline e kohës’ by Fahredin Shehu and English translation, ‘The Crystalline Side of Time’, were first published together during the 32^nd Vilenica International Literary Festival in Slovenia in September 2017. They have been republished in Rochford Street Review with the full permission of the author.

---

 

Fahredin Shehu was born in 1972 in the village of Rahovec in Kosovo and graduated from Oriental studies at the University in Priština. He is a poet, writer, essayist, editor, an independent researcher of the world spiritual heritage and sacral aesthetics, and a calligraphy enthusiast. He writes mystical and transcendental poetry, prose, essays, and articles in Albanian and English. Fahredin’s recent books range from a collection of poetry, Crystalline Echoes (2011) to essays and articles on culture and spirituality, Makadam i Smagradtë (Emerald Macadam, 2012), and the novel, Hojet (Honeycomb, 2013). In 2014, he released NALIVPERO (The Pen) and the epic poem, MAELSTROM – The Four Scrolls of an Illyrian Sage (Inner Child Press), in which he writes about spiritual visions and the author’s creative unrest that oscillates between Theurgy and Revelation. Fahredin’s poetry has been translated into over twenty languages, and included in many anthologies and literary journals around the world. He is a frequent guest of literary festivals. Fahredin is the director of the renowned, international poetry festival, Poetry and Wine, that takes place in his birth village. He is a founder of the fund for Cultural Education and Heritage (www.fekt.org).