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Fifth Prayer of My Body

So you will traverse this body, these vertiginous heights,
wind of silence, butterfly of a dream of everhurting.
Where next inside me? Stop, relentless one—rest
on this stone, this black stone, in this empty clearing.

So you will swim from this body, from this dark maelstrom,
dancer on all waters subterranean and unruly.
You are only here as an ancient dweller,
dancing across this body, which bore you in fury.

So now we are captive in a dance, in a circle;
we are carried on a dreary, unreal tidal wave,
and travel all our lives from one to the other,
each keeping hidden what it is we have.

Aco Šopov, Not-Being, 1963
Read the cycle “Prayers of My Body”
Translated by Rawley Grau and Christina E. Kramer, The Long Coming of the Fire, Deep Vellum, 2023