A Naïve Poem

MW^M Romeo Çollaku (b. 1973, Sarandë, southern Albania) isa poet, prose writer, editor,and translator who has lived inAthenssince 1999. He has published three books of poetry, a novel,and a book ofshortstories, and has translateda wide range ofnineteenth -and twentieth-century European writers intoAlbanian and Modern Greek, among them Mallarmé,Verlaine,Claudel, and Rilke.He has received both the Albanian NationalAwardforTranslationand the Albanian National AwardforFiction. u:■! Constantin» .--'s most recenttranslations includeSophocles's ThebanTrilogy (2008) and TheEssentialWritings ofMachiavelli (2007). A2010 Guggenheim Fellow,Constantinewas awarded the PENTranslationPrize forSixEarly Stories, byThomas Mann,and the NationalTranslationAwardforTheUndiscoveredChekhov .He isone ofthe editorsof ACentury ofGreekPoetry:1900-2000 (2004) and ofTheGreekPoets:HomertothePresent (2010). Constantinehas translatedpoetry byClemens Setz and JazraKhaleed for World Literature Today. Deep inThought Twilight andbareplumtrees andmadrigals ofrainontherooftops there where oldwomentellchildren talesandsingballadsfilled withfateful numbers, bringing spoonstothechildren's mouths with devotion andsweetness: Quick!Or Irontooth willcomegetyou!Jackals arecreeping through thesnow,circling ourvillage !A wildogress isguarding thewell! Three mountains, sevenheads,ninecradles . . . Andthechildren arebewitched andchewslowly ina daze,their eyeslostfar beyond thehazywindowpanes. A Naïve Poem Ifthere's still a desert islandsomewhere, then that's where I'd likemyhouse^to be:a stone house ona hilltop - andopening mywindow I'd seea pier, thin anddreary, a boattiedup,a beloved babynext toitsparent. Andyet, youcannot callsuchislands deserted, lestnature seekvengeance onyouandyour conceit. Anislandinhabited bysimple people,perhaps uneducated, whostandoutfor their modesty, their simplicity andsilence, andyouimagine they revel inthegenerous gifts ofGod- theseaandfruits andtrees andlight, thefog that sometimes covers theisland- butthey delight insecret, nottodrawtheattention andenvyofothers. That'swhere I'd likemyhousetobe,andopening mywindowI'd seea pier, thin anddreary, definitely thepierandtheboat, evenifI hadnointention ofleaving. Translations from theAlbanian ByPeterConstantine 121WorldLiterature Today < o < OC oc < LU < û. I U I CL. O IO I Q

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