[(( How would life feel…]
By Tilsa Otta
Translated By Farid Matuk
(( How would life feel
Not the one that’s personal and non-transferable
But the one that’s nobody’s
The one that’s free
The one that wanders over the world
The one that convinces the trees
The one that quickens the dances ))
If you’re as old as that lightning
There are some colors we can’t make
Words we never understand
But there’s more where this came from
A gorgeous bureau with its spirit mirror
Occultist groups linked by the silk road
Hunters of hallucinogenic honey on the cliffs
Massive fireflies
My beloved mother
Light incarnate
Now behold the stigma of my soft smile
A steady looking at me steadies me
Now that I live in a small room
More than the absence of gravitational force
What I feel is free fall forever
Copyright Credit: Tilsa Otta, "[(( How would life feel…]" from The Hormone Of Darkness: A Playlist, trans. by Farid Matuk. Copyright © 2024 by Farid Matuk. Reprinted by permission of Graywolf Press, www.graywolfpress.org.
Source: The Hormone Of Darkness: A Playlist (Graywolf Press, 2024)