Sveta Litvak
Shadows of the plane tree leaves
Shadows of the plane tree leaves
along the wall of stone
play like a close-up
of red and blue barrels.
They move the shutters aslant,
opening just a chink,
as if a crooked scythe
had brushed against the stone.
A spurt of tiny drops
leapt clean over the fence,
gets entangled, and misses
the deftly scurrying rakes,
aimed at a striped awning.
On the slope, mould and ivy
and on the neighbours’ side,
children playing quietly.
What they’re after is trout
or feeding the little donkey.
Bird on the old fir tree,
a weathercock on a pole,
a child’s broken chair.
About to drop from above,
a roof tile, cracked and loose
has missed its chance to do harm.
A lizard has frozen there,
the sun in a circle turns,
the little girl might have fallen,
had the mother not grabbed her arm.
Translated by Daniel Weissbort
Page(s) 120
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The