Níkos Davvétas
From: The Yellow Darkness of Van Gogh (1995)
The Ambush I
When the lights are low the forest creatures come quietly into the room. They sit in the corners and watch me. The boldest, wild cats of some sort, come closer and prowl round my bed. You can see at once they're not aggressive, they just want conversation, advice on plant-cultivation. I always keep a dream-interpretation book handy and give my opinion. The different kinds of animals all have their own peculiarities. I notice they all get frightened suddenly, just before dawn, they can scent the hunter outside the locked door, and they howl in terror. But at just this time the cuckoo, to keep up appearances, flies fearlessly out of its nest. Usually I'm the only one hit by the shot-gun pellets, but for some strange reason I'm never hurt. This ambush happens again the following night, always with the same animals, but with a different hunter.
Translated by Simon Darragh
Page(s) 180
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