XIX THE MARRIED FRIEND
Mitchell S. (Mitchell Starrett) Buck translation
OUR mothers were pregnant at the same time and, this evening, she is married, Melissa, my dearest friend. The roses still lie upon the path; the torches have not yet burned out.
And I return, by the same path, with mother, and I dream. Thus, as she is now, I also will be later. Am I already a woman?
The cortège, the flutes, the nuptial song and the flowered car of the bridegroom, all the festival, some other evening, will unfold for me under the branches of the olives.
Like Melissa at this same hour, I shall unveil myself before a man, I shall know love in the night, and, later, little children will nourish themselves at my swollen breasts....