I was born in the North, in the plains,
a day of fog
and ever since the plains
of fog and the fog have been chains.
Escape has been rare
summer always brief
and too often
at the end of the street a wall.
And so I love the sea
this endless alive toy
in which I find the most beautiful days
of my childhood and also
>
the childhood of the world
and also the long Phoenician ships and the heroes
who returned with the sun each morning
in summer galloping on white hoses
there where the waves withdraw and the sand
for an instant breathes bands of light.
That’s how I find my true life in the sea
and what does it matter if later
up in the north, in the land of exile where I was born,
they wait for me still
my chains.
Translated by Katie Hepworth