LILITH III

from “Enchanter” Kastaniotis Publ. translated by Yannis Goumas

my name is Lilith
carved on copper
it blinds you from afar
before sundown
they say I kidnap women’s children;
shrieks in cradles
then silence and shadows
moving on the walls
that I laugh hysterically;
I start dribbling
my beard grows, my nails
the moment I smell childbirth
sterile Lilith, stony
yet I hide two sexes;
all throes of childbirth in me
a twin thirst, unquenched
only chimeras do I breast-feed
I never interfere with children;
I let them grow
grass of puberty; that’s where they lie
rubbing themselves with fig leaves
drinking mulberry milk
and wake up
only they don’t recognize
innocence once they return
they blame me
as if in the past they hadn’t unstuck
Eve from my flesh
lily-white, ethereal
hounded like me
IV
my name is Lilith
I travel in people’s dreams;
the moon is waxing tonight
all rivers flow into its crater
it has the colour of water
at times this crystal sphere
is not visible, or so they say;
lies
I cover the moon with my skin
it mirrors my nudism
I swim in the dark
I predict the oncoming day
– remember those screams and tears
when a full moon rises
words of a woman asleep
Lilith is my name;
for sages I am air;
for dreamers, their lover

NATALIE KATSOU IS FROM ATHENS, Greece and lives in London. She has published two books in Athens — Magodos, which means Enchanter (Kastaniotis Publ. 2008, nominated for the Diavazo Literarture Prize 2009), and Cochlea (Kedros PUbl. 2012). She has published poems in such literary magazines as Poihtiki (ArsPoetica), dekata and e-zines: e-poema.gr, poeticanet.gr and mediterannean.nu. Many of her poems have been translated into English by the poet Yannis Goumas.

YANNIS GOUMAS IS A POET, TRANSLATOR, novelist, actor, composer and singer. Born in Athens , he grow up and was educated in England, where he lived for much of his life. Author of eight books of poems in English, five in Greek (in translation) and one trilingual (English, Turkish, Greek), his poems have been translated into Turkish, Arabic, Serbe-Croatian, Italian, Esthonian and Hungarian.

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