WHERE DID YOUR FEAR OF THE WOLF COME FROM?

A Wolf-poem by
BESNIK MUSTAFAJ
Albanian Ambassador to France 1992-7
Translated by Anthony Weir



WHERE DID YOUR FEAR OF THE WOLF COME FROM?

You were born in the city, my son,
so you never went into the forest,
not even for a stroll.
So how did you get your terrible fear
of the wolf ?
So I'm asking you what a wolf is,
I'm asking you what a wolf's like.
All you can say is that he is voracious
and that when he is hungry
the water lapped by the lamb
is troubled all the way up to its source -
which prevents the tender creature from drinking.
Thus it is obvious that you have never seen a wolf,
my little man.

So where in the bosom of the big city
did your fear of the wolf come from?

Was working on a project on wolves when I came across this poem(check out the source: http://www.beyond-the-pale.co.uk/vaskopopa.htm), thought i should share it with everyone. Sometimes one must just not talk but absorb the words and feel them..this is that kind of poem. It evokes the whole essence of this world and the diversity and the disparity that exists between man and animal.