My Heart Is Tormented by Your Eyes!

There recently appeared in Paris a new work entitled:
Poènes français de Poètes Etangers
(French Poems by Foreign Poets), under the supervision of a committee composed of Monsieur Georges Lecomte, member of the French Academy, and other well-known major writers. The work comes in two volumes and has been crowned by the French Academy. From the French verse of Mr. Riyad Maalouf the said committee selected a poem entitled La Rumba. We congratulate the poet, and for the occasion we publish these new verses of his:

Your wounds have torn open my wounds—
Go, for the love of God, go!
My heart is tormented by your eyes; it is like a slaughtered bird...
Your eyes are two precious jewels in a comely face.
Hope for nothing of the old love, and do not lament;
My own heart now goes to another—so be reassured, and rest.
A secret lies shrouded within the ribs; I do not tell it, so do not you tell!
And an innocent, chaste love between that soul of yours and mine,
Pure of intent, like the Magdalene's love for Christ!!

Zahle, from the Green Cottage, December 17, 1953