translated by Janine Canan

Your name, that was given to you by your mother.
Your name, that was poured down my bitter throat
like a drop of poisoned honey.
Your name, that I cried under every sky
and wept in every bed.
Your name, that I read in the water-marks
on every page of my misery.
Your name, clear as the tear-drop
that was shed on us by one of the Angels.
Your name, like a beautiful naked child who rolled in the
mud.
Your name, that bruises my mouth.
Your name, with which I sleep like a talisman.
Your name, like the sentence which condemns me to
banishment.
Your name, that I moan like a beggar continuing her
lamentations
even at the gates of a city in flames.
Your name, where so many sordid stories perch like flies.
Your name, that people speak as if it were anyone's.
Your name, X for the unknown that is your self.
Your name of baptism, inscribed in the black register
of the Devil and in the golden book of God.
Your name, that nothing could ever make me forget.
Your name, with your memory, the only thing you can never
take from me, since anyone under blue heaven may say it.
Your name, whose every letter is a nail in my agony.
Your name, the only one I'll remember on Resurrection
morning.