RAGING STORM

Dark clouds swirled across the sky, casting a dark shadow across the Earth; the sun sank in the sea of clouds; the pulverizing heat that had overwhelmed us through the day was now nothing but a calm breeze kissing my skin.

I decided to go for a jog around the school. I’ll beat the rain, I thought. As droplets trickled down, I ran like a steed; I saw a lady in purple holding an umbrella and I felt my blood rushing with excitement, my feet thudded even faster, like pistons. But  suddenly, the water poured down as if there was an ulcer in the sky; I heard the sky raging, roaring like a lion; it spewed out its rage as violent downpours that soaked me wet as if I had been drenched by the sea; the wind bellowed! I felt it tossing me from side to side, so I stopped running. I saw the water trickling about in eddies; it flowed, flooding the sidewalks and the roads.

I felt so inferior! oh, I was nothing! It is at that point that I realized that we are we are tiny in the face of Nature’s violent rage. If it wants to, it can sweep us away, flood us away and all we can do to is marvel at its majestic prowess.

ロボット - robot

I am a robot; who am I? Am I a man or a machine? I was made by man, to think like man, be like man, but I’m not man; I’m not made of flesh and bones, I’m made of circuits and wires, and billions upon billions of mathematical calculations that happen every minute; what am I? A man, or a machine?

They say, to be human I must feel, I must fall in love-- can I fall in love? If they program me to. They say, their hearts flutter and they get this feeling and life begins to have meaning. My circuits can light up, but I’m afraid it’s not the same.

can I tell right and wrong?-- If you program me.

kill?-- If you program me.

hate?-- If you program me.

make peace?-- If you program me.

What gods shall I kneel down to? Man? shall I make monuments to man for creating me? or to computers for giving me life? I don’t know.

I am a machine;

私はロボットです。 I am a robot; I think, therefore I am; therefore I am free!

AFRICAN FIRE

Oh, African fire that burned while my ancestors danced to the beat

of their own ancestors, until their skin was black as the night, black as blackness

black as a black bonfire burning boisterously,

Oh, African fire, dancing on the pile of firewood, with your flames kissing the firewood

making love to it until it becomes as black as coal,

to its very core,  

Oh, African fire, with your enchanting blackness that courses through my veins;

I feel the blackness flowing through me,

imbibing me, intoxicating me like beer!

I see my ancestors dancing with their black bodies dancing through the night

while the drum rolls! rolls! rolls!

--African fire! ferocious fire!

burn through my veins, course through them like a river

flooding in the rain;

Burn! Burn, fire, burn!

burn me to the very core

until I am nothing but ash

and let those ashes be a tale

that will smoke through the homestead tomorrow morning

when they will all say:

“oh, last night there was an African fire,

and yes, it burned like a true African flame!

Yes; its eyes were yellow like a leopard's,

-oh, African fire!”

MOON

Beautiful moon,

shining like a pebble

in the sky,

glowing, flowing,

overflowing with beauty,

purity

I feel my eyes

soaking your light-

marble light;

like twilight

truth is I don’t know why I like to look at the moon,

is it because it reminds me of a face; ghostly pale,

wandering alone in a dark sky?

oh moon,

beautiful moon, mysterious moon;

tell me why i like to look at you;

tell me why you like to look at me

to stare down at me

BIRD SONG

sing a song for me like a bird
tweeting in early summer
because the sun is high and glad
And the world is so much younger

open up your cute little beak
and bubble it up like cello 
let your cords feel free to speak
until the world's all mellow 

bless us all with your melody
watch the squirrels dancing!
this is the world's remedy
and mine is only just glancing

абстрактный - abstract

in this world he sees with walls warping and moving
and changing,
where stairs, descend and ascend,
and nothing is as it seems;
where he walks, runs away; from what?
from something,
and is found; by what?
by something;
in this world where at one moment
he's in a classroom listening to a teacher,
the next he's walking with a girl in one hand,
and he's on a journey he's always been
his whole life; going, somewhere,
over there
where the sky is azure blue, and oceans
of potions wash up the shores and
a ship flows away to an unknown island;
then he enters the building, enters the room,
and he's here, where he's always been
somewhere;
and the next thing he knows, it's a dog
chasing her, and she leaps over the wall
into the backyard of some fancy house,
and she's sipping tea with her friends,
and the dog is vying revenge,
he'll leap over the wall and make her
pay!
but then they are there
where they've always been,
in this street;
and next thing he knows it's, shark,
no, a whale!
that swallows and suffocates its
victims,
there in the foamy ocean-
yes, beware, beware of whales!
beware of whales!
he yells
and the next he knows,
he's here, where he's always been,
doing what he's always done,
whatever it is-- абстрактный

SONG OF THE NIGHT

I heard the birds moaning like it was a funeral,
as if a loved one had died
I heard the insects croaking,
hidden in the grass, behind the trees
and who knows where!—
It was a loud, discordant noise;
yes, the night was theirs, and I was an intruder!

have you ever been outside at night
and heard noises you wouldn't otherwise hear during the day?
It's as if the world doesn't belong to us,
as if the real owners of it wake up at night
to claim what's rightfully theirs;
as if the day has died
and the night has awakened
to haunt the living;
we don't belong there—
oh, the night has a voice!
listen to it mourn!