calm harbor
you are
the wrapping of a mummy,
the hay on a hay cutter,
melting autumns,
burning farms.
tell me, from where,
tell me, how
lakes become rivers,
september october.
tell me, from where
the traveling monks arrive,
when monolithic distances
crumble between fingers.
tell me, from where,
tell me, whether you’ll sleep
inside my guitar case,
inside my harbor of sorrow.
you are just
the falling snow,
the baying hounds,
how much is left after evening,
when the morning is already gone.
Translation of “ramybės uostas” by Paulius Norvila
from Septyni Metų Laikai, Vilnius: Tyto Alba (2006).
ramybės uostas
tu tik
tvarstis ant mumijos,
šienas ant šienpjovio,
tirpstantys rudenys,
degantys vienkiemai.
pasakyk man, iš kur,
pasakyk man, ar gali
ežerai virsti upėm
ir rugsėjis į spalį.
pasakyk man, iš kur
atkeliauja vienuoliai,
kai subyra tarp pirštų
monoitiniai toliai.
pasakyk man, iš kur,
pasakyk, ar miegosi
mano dėkle gitaros,
mano liūdesio uoste.
tu tik
krintantis sniegas,
kaukiantys šunys,
kiek po vakaro lieka,
kai jau ryto neturim.
Norvila, Paulius. Septyni metų laikai: eilėraščiai. – V.: Tyto alba, 2006.
Paulius Norvila is a twenty-seven year old poet from Lithuania whose first collection, Septyni Metų Laikai (“Seven Seasons”), was well received when it was published in Vilnius in 2006. His second collection of poetry was released this year.
Rimas Uzgiris‘ poetry has been published in Atlanta Review, 322 Review, Lituanus, Prime Number Magazine, The Poetry Porch, inter|rupture, Umbrella, Literary Laundry, riverbabble, Quiddity, The Four Quarters Magazine, The Drunken Boat, Druskininkai Poetic Fall 2012 (anthology), and is forthcoming in Barrow Street, Hudson Review, The Lilliput Review, The Literary Bohemian, Per Contra, Presa Magazine and The Waiting Room Reader: Stories to Keep You Company (anthology). His translations have appeared in The Massachusetts Review, Spork Press, Modern Poetry in Translation, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Two Lines Online, The Brooklyner, Lituanus, The Drunken Boat, Druskininkai Poetic Fall 2012, and are forthcoming in AGNI and The Iowa Review. His book reviews have been published in HTML Giant, Rumpus, Words Without Borders and Post Road. His fiction appeared in Writer’s Abroad: Foreign Encounters Anthology. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and received an MFA in creative writing from Rutgers-Newark University, where he studied poetry with Rigoberto Gonzalez and Rachel Hadas, and fiction with Tayari Jones. He received a Fulbright Scholar Grant to teach at Vilnius University, Lithuania in 2013.
