Ras ad-Din

Tramonto di Figaro

Seated on a Prussian chair 

with a glass of Armenian brandy in hand,

I’m watching a Baltic sunset 

from the roof of a house built by Swedes 

in what’s Russia today 

and listening to an Austrian’s Italian opera.


A guilty cosmopolitan pleasure

and an unattainable dream of the world 

I fear I’ll never be allowed

to live in anymore.