The Sailing Time

The Sailing Time

I launched paper boats
in the rain,
their fragile sails trembling,
their voyages endless
in my mind.
Even when the water
pulled them under,
I dreamed them rising again—
undaunted, sailing to places
I could never name.

From the balcony, I clung
to the last outline of
my father,
his figure swallowed
by the street,
his absence a hollow
that footsteps in the
evening would mend.
The soft strike of shoes
on stone—
our secret signal to
scatter toys,
to open books,
to pretend wisdom
already lived in us.

But time is a thief
that trades play for
silence,
imagination for routine.
We give away so much—
our days, our people,
our tender illusions.
And the heaviest gift
surrendered
is innocence itself,
slipping from our hands
like paper boats
that do not rise again.

 

Le temps en voile

Je lançais des bateaux
dans la pluie battante,
leurs voiles fragiles
frémissaient de peur.

Même si l’eau sombre
les engloutît soudain,
je voulais qu’ils voguent,
hardis, renaissants.

Du balcon j’attendais
le dernier contour
de mon père absent,
avalé par la rue.

Ses pas du soir venaient,
douce percussion,
signe clandestin
pour fermer nos jeux,

ouvrir des cahiers,
feindre la sagesse
qui déjà, peut-être,
habitât nos fronts.

Mais le temps dérobe :
il troque le silence
contre nos éclats,
nos songes contre l’ombre.

Nous donnons nos jours,
nos êtres, nos rêves.
Le plus grand des dons
qu’il exige encore :

l’innocence pure,
qui fuit de nos mains
tel un frêle bateau
ne se redressant plus.