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Post by moira on Oct 12, 2008 16:35:06 GMT 2
Nijolë Miliauskaitë
introduced by Andrea Nicki
I first started investigating and studying Lithuanian poetry because of a keen interest in knowing more about my Lithuanian ancestors and their lives. I immediately felt at home in the poetry and really appreciated its sense of guardianship toward the sacred and pagan resonances. I was particularly struck by the work of Nijolë Miliauskaitë whose poetic lens magnifies the spiritual significance of details normally seen as scarcely noteworthy, such as a forehead with a forget-me-not.
Below are two pieces from Four Poets of Lithuania, Selected and Translated by Jonas Zdanys (VAGA, 1995, Vilnius, Lithuania).
“You”
You who led the way into the forest’s cool shadows: your forehead was marked by a tiny forget-me-not that grew alongside the ditch when you stooped down in the thicket and stared.
Autumn by the sea, the wind flattens the worn-out dress against your back, salty grass cuts across your legs, your hair is thick with sand…
(p. 193)
“A Cold Evening”
a cold evening, swollen painful willow buds
migrating birds are perched in the skeletons of trees along the shore like great black blossoms
a small reddish flame there, far off, trembles in the icy wind as if alive, near the water
a fire stoked by children I it’s almost warmer, isn’t it, as we draw near
(p. 196)
More about this poet here
www.thedrunkenboat.com/nijole.html
and here
hedgeguard.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_archive.html
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