[My country will have no statue]

My country will have no statue
of barefoot man-of-storm.
I’ve shattered my tongue against memory
when night cheated against death
in the game of boats and ports.
Here lies man-without-life.
Break the chains, smash the marble
and let all hands moor him to brass
to preside over the rise of tides:
my country will have no man-with-eyesdried-
by-the-sea.

 

translated by Nancy Naomi Carlson