{ Sylva Gaboudikian. }

[delga]

The Walnut Tree
by Sylva Gaboudikian (trans. Diana Der-Hovanessian)

There is a walnut tree
growing in the vineyard
at the very edge of the world.

My people, you are like
that huge ancient tree--
with branches blessed by the graces

but sprawling
over the small corner of land;
roots and arms spread out
and spilling your fruit
to nourish foreign soils.

--

When the Telephone Rings and No One Answers
by Sylva Gaboudikian (trans. Diana Der-Hovanessian)

There are a thousand kinds of sights,
shrill, bass,
pressed from water,
from lungs,
pressed from stones, trees, and winds.
And as if there weren't enough moaning,
men stretched metal wires house to house
so that the ring of a telephone
can interrupt the laughter
in a room, while in another place
a hopeless girl drops the receiver
into its lever and her head
into a deaf pillow.

--

More to come.