All the red stones on earth are smeared

with blood of the god.

And that's why red stones

teach our childhood.

When we are children, the god

walks beside us.

He touches our ear-rings

and necklace.

He enters and hides in our shiny shoes

and the folds of our childish ribbon.

I must buy a flame-red dress and bed,

a red ring

and lamp.

There must come a time

when the mother's time begins and ends.

The blood that knows how to wait,

also knows how to be a stone.

To be in the world is pain -

this I have learned.

Red darkness

blue darkness

and the beginning,

the meaning of these must be

that they never abandon us,

our mother and our god.

© translated by Ruth Christie