Alexandria
Think of the village baby.

A scene of adventure – the dream of Europe.

The eyes of marching armies fostered perplexity

that marred all its books and intellectuals

and opened their minds to the encyclopaedia of algebra

and carmine bear remembrances.

The tumult of the bears has maintained the fear.


     Cairo
Ladies choose a country to call symbolic,

uncertain of which temptation to desire,

the theatre of maiming, the pain,

the poets, the verses frozen,

aware of the men and women of this road,

the cradle impossible to forget: our origins.

The Mediterranean exploits of Herodotus

spread to both of the memory vaults.

The stone murmurs our common heritage.


     Giza
We know the imagination of letters,

the country of hanging gardens, this

speaks to us. We are bound by its women,

children play with hope. The transparent work

without play is reported missing.

The expert should like food.

Ladies are prepared to become rich

despite the clangour of morality.


     Luxor
In our shelter, harm depends on a fresh chance

for decadence. We have toyed with nostalgia,

and vengeance is a blind alley.

Am I not ancient? We wish to spread

a host of luxuriant factors for play.
We need her rich experience and feelings of despair.

It intensifies the suffering.

There has never been such abomination.

Each road must be ripe for the sad future,

embracing water and the thirst for travel.


     Thebes
The joint will lend an ear

to the consciousness.

It would lag behind concrete,

for the sad future is embracing water

and the thirst for travel.
Act, think about the pool, these fields.

Relax: go further to the shore,

create a stimulant for our partners.

A high-level personality means breathing.

Our neighbours must be separated.

These five poems are derived from the official English translation of a speech by French Foreign Minister

D. De Villepin in Cairo, Egypt, 2003 (Visit to Egypt: speech by Mr Domenique de Villepin, Minister of Foreign

Affairs for France, Cairo, 12 April 2003: ‘The Mediterranean World and the Middle East’.) In the case of each

poem, most of the words of M Villepin’s speech were removed, and the remainder made up the poem.