Unfathomable
this love
of Jan Sobieski
for his
enemy’s beauty [1]
I won't, unfortunately, be able to assist at any of the launch events: tomorrow's, for issue 82 [Autumn 2015] of "Poetry London", or the two events for Futures: Poetry of the Greek Crisis (Penned in the Margins, London,
2015) in Oxford and London, later in the week.
But I greatly treasure the pleasure of having poems of mine appear in both publications.
"Burning candle" (translated by myself and Stefanos Basigkal; its two final stanzas appear in [2], below), from my 2008 book (in Greek), The lifesaver (Kastaniotis editions), is published -thanks to editor Ahren Warner- in "Poetry London". And it's quite moving for me that, amongst the various poetic riches in the issue, there appear poems by two UK poets I have had the privilege to meet and translate: David Harsent and Fiona Sampson.
Two poems from my upcoming (in Greek), third book, Poland (Kastaniotis editions), translated by myself, appear in the stimulating and provocative anthology that Theodoros Chiotis edited for Penned in the Margins: "Łazienki" and "Jan III" [whose opening lines appear in [1], above].
But
before dozing yesterday I forgot
blew
out the flame – the wall
got
splashed above the second pillow
with
melted candle wax
Nothing
then could comfort me – as if
it
were a human being – and I were to blame [2]
[the photograph was taken in Poland, in 2008 - from my ongoing visual diary]
