Full Description
Indonesia, South Africa, Estonia, Lithuania, Shetland, Nicaragua - many worlds meet in these poems as nature dyes Sujata Bhatt's many languages with its own hues. The real merges with the surreal and the allegorical, certainties are undone in an open-ended quest. A Chinese cook ignores a predatory snake, a heart surgeon lives most intensely between operations, Gregor Samsa's sister proposes a different sort of metamorphosis, someone listens to the Holy Ghost sing, a woman hears her daughter's voice in birdsong - and the 'poppies in translation' mutate according to the languages and histories they inhabit, ultimately persisting in a space beyond language. At times, language itself is injured by history: Bhatt reimagines the 'haunted undertow' of post-war German as experienced by Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann. Meanwhile, the poppies are ever-present, 'with their black souls in the wind'.
Contents
I A Different IncarnationToday 3Truth is Mute 4Another Muse 6Redness 8Schlafmohn, Blaumohn: Allerleilustblume 10Six Poems for John AshberyApres un Reve 13L'Heure Exquise 14My Dear Jungle 15Dorothy's Summer Dream 16Icarus 17Poisson d'Avril 18Between Hearts 20Ars Poetica with Poppies and Birds 21Conil de la Frontera, June 2012 23Where a Scorpion Sleeps - Tete Fantastique 24Elephant and Boats 25Underneath the Bridges 27Some Days 28...bis wir kleine Fische geworden sind... 29Florence 30A German Education 32Self-Portrait as a Soul 34Another Daphne 36Blumenmuskel 38Reading Sappho, I am Reminded of Chickpeas 39Fragments for Lise 41Old Love Never Rusts 43Crear 44Poppies in Translation 46A Secret 48Viriditas: Hildegard and Jesus 51A Different Incarnation 55II Where is Your Silver Dream?Always Choose the Jack of Hearts 63Gregor's Sister Speaks 64A Word Spoken on Land 65She Flies High 66The Tired Butterfly 68No Tiger is Plain 69Where is Your Silver Dream? 70You Have the Blue 71Oblique 72At First She Was a Butterfly 73Long Yellow Dresses 74Faux Fable, with Butterfly 75III Magelang MorningLand of Many Birds 79Ornithologists 80Achill 82In a Small Boat 83Magelang Morning 84Green 86At the Equator 87It's Our Reality 88A Chinese Cook 901980 91A Witness 92Pet the Orphaned Lion Cubs 93As We Leave the Black Sea 95Palitana 96By the Railway Tracks, Ahmedabad 97Notes from India 98Sea Turtles 99Sisyphus 100Straight Through the Heart 102IV A Captain's ConfessionHis Brother's Knife 109Why Didn't You Sing Last Night? 110A Cup of Tea 112So Many Oaks 114A Captain's Confession 115Flight 116Such Sweet Cherries 117Where Were You Last Night? 118What Did You Drink? 119If I Weren't French... 120He Speaks in Riddles 121You Never Know 122I Didn't Say That 123Can You Tell Me...? 124A Cherry Tree in Her Garden 125The Grapes are Ripe 126A Hearty Appetite 127Mr Ludwig 128Mr Matsumoto 129When Passions are Strong 130What Can You Tell Us? 132Notes 134
