Poetry

By

Irsa Ruci

Nostalgia in pain

My origin is a letter grown on foreign soil

the morning air woken up far from the heart,

from the coldness that distances leave

the sound of paradise

knitted in imagination, like a nest of emotions

when the smell of the ancient land

today occupies the spirit.

In my origins

nostalgia is a traveling soul

caught between two sides

the suffering that only the skin can feel

the skin of the body of the earth

of the breath

alive

immortalized

between generations, through dreams

in war memories

in wounds that are not closed yet

in fight for justice.

Where my origin is the future,

traces of steps still untried

that between roars powder freeze memories.

Write me a letter

Write me a letter…

Yes, yes … as love were written centuries ago,

on crumpled papers:

filled with goods, with words from the heart, tears, fears,

the thrill of waiting, with dreams for the future;

filled with paradise of  the spirit in love…

I want to see how words error while talking about feelings,

experience the smell that evocations hold

when they are traveling by the train of eternity,

I want to disclose that verse that gives spirit to poetry

knitted in the candle full of light,

I want to love you for every letter of that paper

since from you that I want…

Write me in that letter whatever you want,

let’s prove the romanticism of centuries ago,

and promise that letters

would let them live forever in the drawer…

While our love will engrave on a novel page

I would build it my castle of immortality

I will give it to humanity so it can preserve it

I will knit it as legend for generations who will come.

Write a letter…

Written irregularly

(as the syllables shake from the longing)

without revising again

(Once already paved

blindfolded and heart opened).

Write a letter…

and I will bring back those experiences,

together with the letter, inside

I will post also my heart.

(Both poems translated by Stela Xega)

Irsa Ruci

Irsa Ruçi is an Albanian Writer, Speechwriter and Lecturer. She was born in Tirana (Albania), in 1990. Her books of poetry include Trokas mbi ajër (poems and essays), 2008 and Pështjellim (poetry), 2010. She has been published in anthologies: Antologji, 2007; I kërkoj agimit vesën, 2008; Antologji poetike “Kushtuar dashurisë”, 2014; Antologji poetike “Udha”, 2014; Antologji poetike, 2014; “Malli dhe brenga nga distancat”, 2014; Antologji poetike “Qyteti”, 2014; Poeteca, 2015; and her works has appeared in a number of print and online national and international magazines, including Sling Magazine, Issue 5; Ann Arbor Review, Issue 15; Poeteca Magazine, Issue 35; Aquillrelle Anthology, 2015, Aquillrelle Anthology, 2016, Metaphor Magazine Issue 5, The Commonline Journal, Issue 4/22 A New Ulster poetry anthology, april 2016 etc. And Among many awards, she has received the first prize in poetry, in competition “Anthology 2007”, as the best poet in Albania.