Thunder

One of the most beautiful poems I ever read. For my friend Željka, enjoy!

 

I set that man above the gods and heroes —

all day, he sits before you face to face,

like a cardplayer. Your elbow brushes his elbow —

if you should speak, he hears.

 

The touched heart madly stirs,

your laughter is water hurrying over pebbles —

every gesture is a proclamation,

every sound is speech ...

 

Refining fire purifies my flesh!

I hear you: a hollowness in my ears

thunders and stuns me. I cannot speak.

I cannot see.

 

I shiver. A dead whiteness spreads over

my body, trickling pinpricks of sweat.

I am greener than the greenest green grass —

I die!

 

Sappho, fragment 146

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

 

Thanks for watching!

 

A

 

Done