This poem by Cavafy (in my translation) has an unconventional (to say the least) take on the character of Hamlet’s uncle Claudius and the plot of Shakespeare’s play: My minds turns to distant places.I walk along the streets of Elsinore,and round its squares, and I rememberits saddest story, that unfortunate kingkilled by his nephewfor imaginary […]
King Claudius by Cavafy
This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus on 20 July 1974. The heavy fighting left many dead and the island split between Greek Cypriots in the south and the Turkish occupied north, with peace being maintained by a UN Buffer Zone between them. In ‘Spoon sweet’ by the Cyrpiot poet, […]
The 1974 Turkish invasion reflected in Cypriot poetry
In Munich coming out of the U bahn,
past the notice about the Putsch,
a magnificent sheathed building appeared.
On the white coverall an elaborate printed design so
passersbuy might see the final construction
the architecture already inspiring.
Lloyd’s Bank, Penzance has looked shabby and shrouded for weeks.
The overall possibly reminding
pedestrians of the Bibby Stockholm.
Game On meets Auntie May in the advertising.
Rather a “temple” of Mammon, a monument to cut price aesthetics
and ponder the paradox.
Has anything been learnt in one hundred and one years.
I’ve let two months go by without sharing a single thing here, which is very much unlike me. And there have been things to share, like fresh translations of Vernon Duke in Arc and of Julia Nemirovskaya in The Queens Review, as well as news about other projects, like my completion of Alexander Voloshin’s mock […]
“For Helping a Passerby”: Vladislav Ellis’s Hungry Years
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