The Miniaturist (Alcaics)
I paint the furrows fine of the lofty brow,
the fur, each hair distinct, of the simple beast;
the grass, close up, a wonder: every
blade is a world and as strange as stars are.
My brush delights in detail: in curlicues
of cunning woodwork, legends of cloudy grace
and myths of tinted grain suggesting
noble confusions in coloured marble.
What urges me is reverence. What is slight
I celebrate. I cherish the flame of love.
These hands of mine know well, so well, the
weakness and error of large-scale action.
Does not sufficient riot of symbol lurk
about the acrid sign of the puckered mouth?
For one who knows is not too much a
light as of tears in the eyes in shadow?
O bounding sweetness! Here no arm attempts
the heavens wildly. Only, about the brows
remote from time, the shadows gravely
wander of stars that have set forever.
Translated by D.M. de Silva
Page(s) 89
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