Ioulíta Iliopoúlou
From: Digamma (1992)
a faint humming
secretly in the room
it's a journey for one
with the double axe
Strike me.
*
TAKE ME to the bend
The dark imprint of a petal
on the paving
and the huge windows in your breast
let me leave and
return again
a bee you buzz me wildly
all around around
all around at night the sea
shines my legs glow
for I climb high
and from so very high
nameless call you
Take me...
*
LOST SORCERY of the garden
with what what what...
And if I've returned again
obedient to you
the yellow in my eyes
droplet of jasmine
wrestling all around
the wind
a little nearer the almond's
bitter again no
why why so many times why?
Night time when your body sprouts
a new branch
with my mouth cutting
old lace like hydrangeas
and so much rain
*
I WIND the thread
around the thorn
And as night falls
for a moment
within my four reds
high
I'll raise you
so nothing in the world
may exist
like that you can hold on
you can hold on
like that
before again never never
like that
to me.
*
THE WAY I turn
as if a body unexpected
Like on a watery moon deep down
to the soles
at night always possessing me
the same
deep
blue mountains still deeper the
trees' hollows still
deeper the birds' voices
the white flowers' deep
night names
Monarda Pladango Anthylida
still deeper my legs open.
*
IN A ROOM too small
to hold
Away
the day
away
the naked grow
broken colour shells
I'm still called Nemarti
the heavens
a white sea
and whoever finds me
that came of old from beyond
and stayed
whoever finds me
in upright wind an arc
man's body
surrenders to me
squ squ ir m
surrenders to me
at nightfall.
*
NOW THE TREES return once more
to the sky
pitchers of a single moon
I'll say night and
narcissi
ever everywhere unreaped
grass upon you
The wind always carrying you off
and always drawn back by
the blood.
Translated by David Connolly
Page(s) 200-202
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