Tolerance
Noiselessly it rains upon the meadow of the sea.
Not a soul passes along the unswept streets.
And down from the train steps a solitary female:
from beneath her coat flashes a stretch of silk
and legs disappearing inside a dingy doorway.
The whole town seems submerged. Dusk drips cold
across every threshold, and here and there a chimney
tinges shadow with bluish smoke. Chequered gold
by chequered gold, lights are switched on, including hers
behind the half-open shutters of the blackened house.
Come morning, a sunstruck sea as the cold continues.
A woman, half-dressed, is washing off her lipstick
at the fountain, streaking its water pink. Her hair
is a garish ginger, not unlike the orange skin
that scatters the ground. Stretched there with her wet look,
she plays the matinée idol for a wide-eyed urchin.
Around the square bleary women fling the shutters open –
their husbands still dozing somewhere within . . .
When evening comes back, the rain accompanies it,
hissing over newly-lit braziers. Fanning the coals,
the wives glance across at the blackened house,
the deserted fountain. But that set of shutters is battened
tight; only inside there stands a bed, and on it
a red-head is busy, striving to make ends meet.
Night brings rest to the town and all its citizens
except the red-head whom dawn’ll find at the fountain,
washing off her lipstick, soaping her arms and legs.
Translated by Martin Bennett
Page(s) 121
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