Mozetič Brane:
Your Scent Permeates My Skin

your scent permeates my skin - and my wife

my children no longer know me

my dog bares its fangs

things elude my touch

and words look away in defiance

mountains lose their peaks, oceans their wetness

the smell of incense vanishes in churches

and on the street, on the street - all those glances.

I make my way toward a hidden clearing

where he stretches his arms as of old

where primeval forces rampage, uprooting

trees, they hack the earth to pieces

I’ll give in to the strangeness, or else the sorcerer’s fire

will not flare, the branches won’t give scent

the word be transformed not into pure water,

dust not into crystal.

Translated by Michael Biggins