Michális Ganás
From: Shiny Iannina (1989)
The Blackbird
To the group on that Wednesday, 18.5.88
Lean little priest, the blackbird
with gravel trills and clumsy
prayers throughout the year, but in spring
he officiates among bright plane trees,
in well-known places and spoken
branches, when it rained,
when it was windy and cold,
when it snowed and the bird hung
from the black shoots of ivy
to nourish that slender body,
and later he was left behind on a branch,
a black flame amid the snow,
waiting
for spring,
when something comes to unloose
the knot around his neck
and a voice leaps up and startles him,
fed so long on quiet and deprivation,
and he becomes the vicar of a dark religion
and of a goddess who keeps
tormenting him, setting hunters,
cats and weasels to frighten him
and make him sing,
while he can,
until he falls face down and returns
to the hibernation of his voice.
Translated by Avi Sharon
Page(s) 47-48
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