Ένας Νέγρος Θερμαστής Από Το Τζιμπουτί [Enas Negros Thermastis Apo To Tzibouti] [English translation]

Willie the black stoker from Djibouti

upon ending his night shift

he came laughing around to my cabin to find me

and he talked long hours about strange things

He told me the way they're smoking hasheesh in Algiers

and in Aden how they're sucking in the white powder while dancing

and afterwards how they yell and how they soliloquise

when the dizziness strangely surrounds them with dreams

He told me further that he too one night he had sucked

he was riding on the sea's back galloping

and mermaids with wings were running after him

When we go to Aden, he was telling me, you'll try it too

I gave him sweets and razor blades

and told him that hasheesh kills a man

and then, while gaffawing shakily, he used to

raise me up high off the ground with one hand

Inside his huge body he had an innocent heart

one evening inside Regina bar in Marseille

in order to protect me from a Spaniard

he took a blow on the head with an empty bottle

One day we left him behind parched from fever

afar in the Far East burning and melting

God of the blackamoors, forgive good Will

and give him wherever he is some white powder