"I Take the Path," Abdelwahab Meddeb

I take the path, that leads to the garden of error, I play with names, behind the
grove of truth, I drink where the child gathers up his dice, I hide in the thicket,
where the gazelle trembles, the wolf drowns the shepherd's song, a breeze dusts
my body in the black day, the downpour fills the lake, that separates the two
countries, in a Sumerian goblet I drink a wine preserved, in an atmosphere of
day, buried underground, for millennia, the ancient goblet, fossil from paradise,
gives off a breath that I scent as mortal.

Abdelwahab Meddeb

Translated by Charlotte Mandell