taha muhammad ali

from Twigs

Neither music,
fame, nor wealth,
not even poetry itself
could provide consolation
fro life's brevity,
or the fact that King Lear
is a mere eighty pages long and comes to an end,
and for the thought that one might suffer greatly
on account of a rebellious child

*

My love for you
is what's magnificent,
but I, you, and the others,
most likely,
are ordinary people.

*

And so
it has taken me
all of sixty years
to understand
that water is the finest drink,
and the bread the most delicious food,
and that art is worthless
unless it plants
a measure of splendour in people's hearts

trans by peter cole, yahya hijazi and gabriel levin