Love after Love
The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
~ Derek Walcott ~
(Sea Grapes)
Grá i ndiaidh Grá
Tiocfaidh an t-am
agus beannóidh tú duit féin
go fáilteach ar leac an dorais
i do scáthán féin,
is ríméad oraibh araon,
Á rá, buail fút. Ith.
Beidh grá agat arís don strainséir a bhí ionat.
Roinn fíon is arán ar a chéile. Tabhair an croí
ar ais dó féin, don strainséir a raibh grá aige duit
ar feadh do shaoil, is duine eile curtha agat
ina áit, an strainséir id’ chroí istigh.
Tóg anuas na litreacha grá ón seilf leabhar,
Na grianghraif, na nótaí mire,
scamh d’íomhá féin den scáthán.
Suigh. Déan féasta de do shaol.