Why I No Longer Write Poems

By Diana Anphimiadi

Diana Anphimiadi is one of the most widely revered Georgian poets of her generation. Her award-winning work reflects an exceptionally curious mind and glides between classical allusions and surreal imagery. She revivifies ancient myths and tests the reality of our senses against the limits of sense. Boldly inventive, prayers appear alongside recipes, dance lessons next to definitions. Her playful, witty lyricism offers a glimpse of the eternal in the everyday. The poems in this selection have been collaboratively translated into English by the award-winning British poet Jean Sprackland and leading Georgian translator Natalia Bukia-Peters. A chapbook selection of their translations of Anphimiadi's work, Beginning to Speak, was published in 2018 and praised by Adham Smart in Modern Poetry in Translation for capturing the 'electricity of Anphimiadi’s language' which 'crackles from one poem to the next in Bukia-Peters and Sprackland’s fine translation'. Georgian-English dual language edition. Co-published with the Poetry Translation Centre.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
• Release date: Feb 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781780375489

Diana Anphimiadi

Diana Anphimiadi is a poet, publicist, linguist and teacher. She has published four collections of poetry in Georgian: Shokoladi (Chocolate, 2008), Konspecturi Mitologia (Resumé of Mythology, 2009), Alhlokhedvis Traektoria (Trajectory of the Short-Sighted, 2012) and Chrdilis Amoch'ra (Cutting the Shadow, 2015). Her poetry has received prestigious awards, including first prize in the 2008 Tsero (Crane Award) and the Saba Prize for the best first collection in 2009. Her chapbook, Beginning to Speak, was published in 2018 by the Poetry Translation Centre, and Why I No Longer Write Poems, the first full-length Georgian-English selection of her poetry, was published by Bloodaxe Books with the Poetry Translation Centre in 2022, both titles translated by Natalia Bukia-Peters and Jean Sprackland. She lives in Tblisi with her son.

Book preview

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Diana Anphimiadi

WHY I NO LONGER WRITE POEMS

Translated by Natalia Bukia-Peters

and Jean Sprackland

Diana Anphimiadi is one of the most widely revered Georgian poets of her generation. Her award-winning work reflects an exceptionally curious mind and glides between classical allusions and surreal imagery. She revivifies ancient myths and tests the reality of our senses against the limits of sense. Boldly inventive, prayers appear alongside recipes, dance lessons next to definitions. Her playful, witty lyricism offers a glimpse of the eternal in the everyday.

The poems in this selection have been collaboratively translated into English by the leading Georgian translator Natalia Bukia-Peters and award-winning British poet Jean Sprackland. A chapbook selection of their translations of Anphimiadi’s work, Beginning to Speak, was published in 2018 and praised by Adham Smart in Modern Poetry in Translation for capturing the ‘electricity of Anphimiadi’s language’ which ‘crackles from one poem to the next in Bukia-Peters and Sprackland’s fine translation’.

Cover design by Tattersall Hammarling & Silk

Cover photograph by Dina Oganova

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Diana Anphimiadi

WHY I NO LONGER

WRITE POEMS

Translated by Natalia Bukia-Peters

and Jean Sprackland

Contents

Title Page

Introduction

მძინარე მზეთუნახავი

Sleeping Beauty

პოეტი შხაპში

Poet in the Shower

ლოცვა ბანაობის წინ

Prayer Before Bathing

იფიგენია

Iphigenia

ელენე

Helen of Troy

ევრიდიკე

Eurydice

პერსეფონე

Persephone

მედუზა–გორგონა

Medusa

კასიოპეა (სამი უკუღმა სიმღერა)

Cassiopeia (Three Back to Front Songs)

ცეკვის გაკვეთილები (რიტმი 3/4)

Dance Lessons (3/4 Time)

ეტიუდები

Studies

გაკვეთილი

Lesson

ჩუმად წერა

Silent Writing

პომპეი

Pompeii

სული

Soul

აუტიზმი. ამეტყველება

Autism: Beginning to Speak

მსაზღვრელ-საზღვრული

Mute

ჩვენი ბრაილი

Braille

იმიტომ

Because

ლოცვა საზრდელის მიღებისწინ

Prayer Before Taking Nourishment

რეტროსპექტივა

Retrospective

რატომ აღარ ვწერ ლექსებს

Why I No Longer Write Poems

ზამთარი

Winter

კარგვა

Loss

ძაღლები

Dogs

კავშირი

Bond

დამწყები მებაღის გზამკვლევი

Gardening for Beginners

გველი ეზოში

The Snake in the Yard

კენტავრის შესახებ

Centaur

etc

etc

დაკარგვა

Lost

უკუღმა

Upside-Down

იმუნოდეფიციტი

Immune Deficiency

ახლომხედველის ტრაექტორია

The Trajectory of the Short-Sighted

სუროგატი

Surrogate

არჩევანი

The Choice

ცრემლები ჭიქაში

Tears in the Glass

საღამო

Evening

ბავშვები

Children

ტყე დგას ფანჯარასთან

The Forest Near the Window

ტყვეთა გაცვლა

The Exchange of Prisoners

გართობა

Entertainment

ორკესტრი

Orchestra

მკის სიმღერა

Reaping Song

ივლისი

July

სუფთა წერა

Fair Copy

საფრთხის ქვეშ

Endangered

მეორედ მოსვლა

The Second Coming

About the Authors

Copyright

7

INTRODUCTION

Diana Anphimiadi’s paternal roots lie in Pontus, a historically Greek region on the southern coast of the Black Sea that once stretched form central Anatolia to the borders of the Colchis in modern-day Turkey. Her mother is Georgian, from the area known as Megrelia-Colchis, where the famous legends of the Golden Fleece, the Argonauts, Jason and Medea also originate. In this small area of the Caucasus, Georgian literature – and Georgian poetry in particular – has always been of central importance and its legacy, the urgency of expression and narrative allusions, can be felt in Anphimiadi’s work. In the poem ‘Silent Writing’, for instance, she sets the myth of the Minotaur alongside the figure of Tariel, the hero of Shota Rustaveli’s 12th century epic poem The Knight in the Panther’s Skin, which is the zenith of the Georgian renaissance. Drawing from both Greek and Georgian literary heritages, she lets the two traditions literally fight it out in the poem. But the voice remains intimate and urgent despite the references, pleading: ‘Bring love closer / bring autumn closer.’ As well as male poets such as Rustaveli, the Georgian literary canon has important medieval women poets, such as the queens Borena and Ketevan, and Anphimiadi’s poems of dramatic personae allow her to explore ancient and mythical female figures with a contemporary boldness of voice and perspective. This selection includes several poems where figures from myth, particularly 8classical Greek myth, speak back against the confinement of their stories. But the goddesses that Anphimiadi gives voice to are not the museum pieces from an overly familiar narrative but fully realised acts of heart-breaking intensity. In these poems the action takes place both within the ancient narrative and in contemporary female experience:

Because I yielded to love

I walk, for some an object of shame,

for others a mirror. Whoever looks at me

is turned to stone,

frozen.                             (‘Medusa’)

Anphimiadi’s ability to allow the contemporary notions of shame to collide with the received narrative of the snake-haired Gorgon makes for a potent read because it speaks for all time as well as today. This feels especially necessary given the historical silencing of female voices, particularly in the Soviet period which produced many wonderful Georgian women poets but restricted their role exclusively to writing for children. It is heartening to see Anphimiadi take her place alongside many other strong women poets from recent generations who are dramatically reshaping contemporary Georgian poetry.

It