Friday 30 April 2021

Kjell Espmark: 'Länge var jag på väg mot exilen'


 


Long did I journey into exile

banished by Augustus

to lose my life hour by hour.

The ship was already thinning out, day by day,

until it only just touched the waves.

The only thing of any weight was my heart.

It sank like the anchor

at this Black Sea coast.

Scudding clouds sought to wipe out my name,

the gibberish spoken to silence my home tongue.

But my Epistulae insisted on being written –

these shards of sorrow that shimmered.

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