Among some green or dried out leaves
there sings upon the window sill
a foreign bird.
Just as I gaze at him and don’t quite see him clear
I know his Birdish
yet cannot quite decipher it.
It did not begin today
this dreadful deafness that afflicts me
blocking out what he would say.
Heavens, how many languages there are
that leave me on the outside
blind to what all birds must know.
Astrid Cabral (born 1937) Brazil
Translated by Alexis Levitin
Source: CALQUE
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