Daughter of mine be a hard stone

Daughter of mine, be a hard stone
for those who want to scratch your world
and model you as best as they think.

Be an impervious rock
to sick loves,
who want to tame you
and pretend to keep you at bay
and would like to isolate you from the whole world,
to have you all for them.

Don’t beg for love,
for fear of loneliness Make of lack an opportunity
to become blizzard. Throw yourself like a shock wave
who opposes to abandonment,
to suffering, to pain.
Be stronger than them.
Make them tremble.

Learn to build walls,
impassable peaks,
for those who disrespect you
for those who dare with violence, that of gestures
or words.

Make yourself an inaccessible cave
in which to hide your pearl heart
by false people.
By those who put you aside,
when they think there is better.
By those who pretend not to see you,
because they no longer need you.
From those who can’t find the time,
when all you need is presence.

Be a marble surface, shiny,
to slip insults on you,
humiliations.
From those who want to stop you from growing,
to prevent you to be better.

Never accept compromises.
Claim attention,
with friends, with a partner,
be shrewd like the faces of the mountains
turned to the sun.

Don’t let criticism crumble you.
Make yourself sand,
slip into their hands,
to let them know that a clean soul
cannot be closed in a handful of words.

But when you meet those who respect you,
become a hollow in which you welcome the caresses,
trickle in which you slide the charm.

Make your cracks
impenetrable to hatred and regret,
that only the washing water flows through them,
the water that takes away.

Daughter of mine, make yourself crystal,
when you meet friendship and love, the real ones,
and like a kaleidoscope
which reflects infinite color combinations,
multiply joy and passion in thousands of faces.

And when you need to cultivate dreams,
because the present is not enough for you and you want to fly,
make yourself stardust.

For me, you will continue to be like this,
precious gem,
and I, at every awakening,
will want to embrace your dreams.

Author: Felicia Lione

Translated by
Giovanna Garraffa

To daughters, mothers, women,
To all of us