I did not know anything about salt yet,
when the gods sniffed me
able to sleep with tallow their hunting dogs
and to read in the stars.
So on their ship alone
they embarked me, not so that we could cross
at sea among their freshwater islands,
but for us to keep an eye on the stars.
Stunner, this job was for them too
and the drunken dream day they were screaming,
while in the hold I was learning their language
and from his gray salt, I became blind.
So they took me on their backs,
at the fir-tree they took me
and in an icy voice demanded that in platoons
I align the stars and count them.
I had already listened to this shrill roar
and I was not blind to the point
not to see the rat regiments
on the alert in the heat of the noon…
Luckily the tide came so far
and this time flooded the two bridges,
because to the ship they had fired,
before flying to another.
And I was brought back in the morning
by monks who went down to the town to fetch cheese.
Monasteries now I graze goats
and I read them from the Qur’an.
Or in the richer towns
I refuel courses in clumps of fresh salt
and even the oxen already know me.
But I never go out without dark glasses.
