But one day within the sepulcher
I, too, reawoke
I, too, like Jesus
have had my resurrection,
but I didn't ascend to the heavens
I descended
to
hell
where I stand stunned
by ancient Jericho's walls.
Translated from the Italian
by
Sharon Dolin
JOHN MATTHIAS
Two in Harar
I. Sir Richard Burton,
J
854
He learned Somali from the soft and plaintive voice
of Kadima who allowed him to remove the leathe r lace
stitching up her labia and put two fingers in.
This was anthropology, linguistics. Topology and trade
would come in turn. Ca lling himself Haji Mirza Abdullah,
he wore a silken girdle with a dirk
&
chewed on khat
he found sufficiently priapic that in time he'd force his
member through infibulations of the local girls
without unlacing first. Now he rose and went to work.
He'd play the Amir off against al-Haji Sharma kay
on matters touching eunuchs and the slaves.
He'd demonstrate Koranic scholarship, say Allahu Akhbar.
He'd mesmerize them with his tales from the Nights.
His exegesis of The Sura dazzled all the mullahs
and he wisely took a local abban from among the lsas.
By the southwest coast near Zayla he turned inland,
riding on a donkey with a shotgun on his kn ee.
Everything that was not stone was sand. Everything that
