Are you already tired? Our quest has barely begun. Forget the sea. Stop dreaming of ships and trade I'm the last voyage you will ever make, and likewise was the first. Every way you came by, every road you took, *** I paved with my own hands for your sake. and you still complain! Too heavy on your shoulders, you say? That's because I carry eternity's weight plus my own, and need your legs to take me around in my journeying between night and day. You will try to escape, I know, time after time; you will dream every night that you crush my head with a heavy stone and dance drunkenly over my corpse. But if you happen to venture out into those woods alone, night will only deepen around you, in every whisper you shall hear a hissing snake, poison and trap will be your lot everywhere. *** Don't try to escape. Forget the sea. Stop dreaming of ships and trade; today you have unbound the knot of my waiting, and from now on you will carry me on your strong back, Sindbad, to explore this island together, you and I, I and thou, as one. ________________ Translated by the author