Three Poems by Nikollë Loka

 

Down the Balcony

The evening shades fall aslant
towards the stairs.
Down the balcony lie the bushes,
lie the woods, the long abysses.
Down the balcony lie the quinces,
lie the apples,
the muses,
the wells,
and the waves of the Ionian.
Shade after shade, until the last hill,
fears lie down,
the shakings, the rains,
the equations
and the doubts.
Down the balcony are the winters,
are the ups and the downs.
Down the balcony are the muses,
are the lemons,
the hands,
and the passing desires,

a flight of waves that fade.

   

 

In the eyelashes of your eye

A galaxy fades into the boundless sky
of your eye.
Endlessness sends you far-
on the Milky Way now you are.
This dream that you are dreaming
connects you to me,
and I read
over your eyelashes,
and wrap myself in it
like a spider’s web.

You transform before me
into a comet approaching.
Fiery,
you burn the coldness.
And then, in the ups and downs
of feelings,
my star seeks to find a place
in your sleep.

You leave this world quietly
at the speed of a comet.
You wander
through interstellar space
and fill your eyes
with a new light.

I feel
the slowing down of time,
the oblivion of this world
in your eyelashes.

 

 

My feeling

My feeling

a windy

flood

that drowns

in your time.

A morning vision

a wanderer,

an undressed rose

from the sin.

 

My feeling

a lonely Juilette

isolated

in word castles

is waiting.

In sky shadows

in the edge of the evenings,

a muse

that injures in the soul.

 

Nikollë Loka was born in Mirdita on March 25, 1960; graduated as a teacher at "Luigj Gurakuqi" University of Shkodra; master's degree in pedagogy at the University of Tirana, doctorate in history of education at the University of Tirana.  Author of ten poetic volumes in Albanian and three poetic volumes in Italian (two of which with co-authors); included in the anthology "La Poesie contemporaine albanaise", "L'Hartmattan" publications, Paris 2024. In addition to Albanian, his poems have been published in Italian, English, French, German, Arabic, Romanian, Swedish and Mecedonian. Winner of several literary awards in the country and abroad. Included in the Lexicon of Albanian writers 1501-2001, editions "Faik Konica", Pristina 2003 and in the Encyclopedia of Italian language poets, "Aletti Editore" Rome 2021.