My stances toward you are like the sea’s stance..

My stances toward you are like the sea’s stance..
-1-
My stances toward you are like the sea’s stance..
And my memory is watery like its memory..
It does not know the names of its harbors..
And I do not remember the names of my visitors..
Every fish that enters my territorial waters dissolves..
Every woman who bathes in my blood dissolves..
Every breast that falls like a golden coin..
Upon the sands of my body.. dissolves..
So let your wisdom be like Phoenician ships..
And the realism of harbors that never marry anyone..

-2-
Whenever the sea smells the scent of your milky body
It neighs like a blue horse
And I share its neighing
Thus God created me..
A man in the image of the sea
A sea in the image of a man
So do not contradict me with the logic of grape and wheat growers..
Nor with doctors of psychiatry..
But debate me with the logic of the sea
Where blue cancels blue
And sails cancel the horizon..
And the kiss cancels the lips..
And the poem cancels the paper..

-3-
My feeling for you is contradictory, like the sea’s feeling
In the day, I flood you with the waters of my tenderness
And cover you with white clouds, and wings of doves
At night…
I invade you like a tribe of barbarians…
I can, O woman, be a neutral sea..
But you cannot be a ship of paper..
You are not Indira Gandhi
And I am not convinced of the usefulness of positive neutrality
For in love.. there are no final reconciliations..
Between the flood, and the milk of open cities..
Between lightning, and tree tops
Between the stab, and the wound
Between my fingers, and your hair
Between love poems.. and the swords of Quraysh
Between the liberalism of your breasts..
And the alliance of right-wing parties!!..

-4-
O you who come from maps of thirst and dust..
Rid yourself of your wild habits..
For wild emotions express themselves..
With one rhythm.. one cadence..
But love in the sea.. is different.. different.. different..
It is not subject to the gravity of earth..
Nor bound by agricultural seasons..
Nor bound by the rules of Arab love
Where men’s bodies explode from gluttony..
And women’s breasts yawn from idleness..

-5-
Enter my sea like a sword of polished copper
And do not read weather bulletins
Or the prophecies of the meteorological office
For they know nothing of the moods of the sea
Nor of the moods of sharks
Nor of my moods..
I do not wish to work as a guard of crown jewels
Your breasts do not fall within my jurisdiction
I cannot guarantee their future..
Just as lightning cannot guarantee the future of a forest..

-6-
Why do you seek permanence?
When we can preserve our maritime relations
Those that oscillate between tide.. and ebb
Between retreat and storming
Between total tenderness, and total destruction…
Why do you seek permanence?
For the fish is nobler than the tree..
The squirrel.. more important than the branch..
The cloud.. more important than New York..

-7-
I want you to speak the language of the sea..
I want you to play with it..
And roll on the sand with it..
And make love with it..
For the sea is the master of multiplicity.. fertility.. transformations..
And your tides are its natural extension..
Sleep with the sea.. my lady..
For it is not in your interest to be of the species of trees..
Nor in my interest to turn you into a readable newspaper
Or into a necktie hanging in my closet
Since I was a university student..
It is not in your interest to marry me..
Nor in my interest to be a doorman at the Sharia court
Taking bribes from those who enter
And curses from those who leave..

-8-
I am your sea, my lady..
So do not ask me about the details of the journey..
Or the time of departure and arrival..
All that is required of you..
Is to forget your wild instincts..
Obey the laws of the sea..
And penetrate me.. like a mad fish..
Splitting the ship in two..
The horizon in two..
And my life in two..