Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Strange Vista

…how ‘Confused’ our physical Geography seems
when you look south from Moldova:
our country has no shape (we are slightly to the West), ‘sweaty’ –
a Caucasian province with gigantic memories.
‘Unnoticed in the lefthand corner of sea’ – X.
(scaled high up beyond the Danube and squeezed from Above.)
How different the Grammar sounds in
the suburbs of Kishinev and Kagul
(even more so in the sup:urbs or on the lower banks
of the Dnester) and how strangely we conjugate our verbs,
worrying about (our) History and geology,
eyes staring to the right, Yarzhidva.
(high up, so we can look beyond the Alps)
and then anthropomorphic,
we rediscover our miracled Landschaft –
like pilgrims
around the looking-glass of the Black Sea.
backwards. forwards.

I head south from Moldova,
but my reflections march towards Kiev –
only here do the Dneper and the Danube meet.


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Dear friends, this is the poem "Strange Vista". I marked my suggestions with bold.

Off to Crete

Dear Folks,

I'm off to Crete on holiday this morning, hopefully to finish the next book. I'm conscious that this project is very near completion, but can't quite be sent off yet. What's need is some decisions on the changes suggested by Kristin and Vassil to the translations Andy and Mark were working on. When we have these everything can be sent to Claire and to Tony at Arc Publications. So -- one last focus?