Morning Hot and Windless
spread out along the olive tree like a drawn bow.
my back against the tree
my abdomen against the sky
hands uplifted
feet open to winds
suspended in the world
while everywhere the endless drone
of cicadas in chorus
alone I strove away from the others
for hours splitting the air
with my strange and sad desire’s
keen.
o sea of olives and noonday stone
above the bright sea of goats out
to the shining Aegean
farther out
to the horizon’s secret end.
Translated from the Greek
Notes:
“Morning Hot and Windless” is from Chimera (New Directions, 2024) by Phoebe Giannisi, translated by Brian Sneeden. Copyright © 2019 by Phoebe Giannisi. Translation copyright © 2024 by Brian Sneeden. Used by permission of New Directions.
Read the Greek-language original, “Πρωί Ζεστής Μέρας Με Άπνοια,” as well as the translator’s note by Brian Sneeden.
Source: Poetry (July/August 2024)