Kiki Dimoula, Selected poems.pdf

The Brazen Plagiarist:

Selected Poems

K I K I D I M O U L A

TRANSLATED BY

CECILE INGLESSIS MARGELLOS

AND RIKA LESSER

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW HAVEN & LONDON

A M A R G E L L O SW O R L D R E P U B L I C O F L E T T E R S B O O K

The Margellos World Republic of Letters is dedicated to making literary works from around

the globe available in English through translation. It brings to the English- speaking world the

work of leading poets, novelists, essayists, philosophers, and playwrights from Europe, Latin

America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to stimulate international discourse and creative

exchange.

Copyright 2012 by Yale University. English translations copyright 2012 by Cecile Inglessis

Margellos and Rika Lesser. The Somatics of Semantics 2012 by Rika Lesser. Greek poems

originally appeared in the following collections: (1998), 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011 by Kiki Dimoula and Ikaros Publishing Company; (1998), 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2010 by Kiki Dimoula and Ikaros Publishing Company; H A (2001), 2001, 2002, 2005, 2009 by Kiki Dimoula and Ikaros Publishing Company; O I (2005), 2005, 2006 by Kiki Dimoula and Ikaros Publishing Company; (2007), 2007, 2008 by Kiki Dimoula and Ikaros Publishing Company; (2010), 2010, 2011 by Kiki Dimoula and Ikaros Publishing Company.

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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data

Demoula, Kike.

[Poems. English. Selections]

The brazen plagiarist : selected poems / Kiki Dimoula ; translated by Cecile Inglessis

Margellos and Rika Lesser. 1st ed.

p. cm. (Margellos World Republic of Letters)

A Margellos World Republic of Letters book.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978- 0- 300- 14139- 9 (alk. paper)

I. Margellos, Cecile Inglessis, 1953II. Lesser, Rika.III. Title.

PA5615.E474A22012

889.134dc23

2012019119

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.481992 (Permanence of Paper).

10987654321

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"The Brazen Plagiarist," by Kiki Dimoula; translated by Cecile Inglessis Margellos and Rika Lesser

Copyright 2012 by Yale University

The Little of the World45

T H E P L U R A L

Love:

noun, substantive,

extremely substantive,

singular in number;

gender not feminine, not masculine,

gender defenseless.

Plural the number

of defenseless loves.

Fear:

substantive,

singular to start with

plural afterward:

fears.

Fears of

everything from now on.

Memory:

noun, proper name for sorrows,

singular in number,

singular only,

and indeclinable.

Memory, memory, memory.

Night:

substantive,

gender feminine,



46

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The Little of the World47

number singular.

Plural in number

the nights.

The nights from now on.



126

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Hail Never127

B R E A K I N G I N T O A N I L L U S I O N

And somewhere in the middle of the night

an all- night drugstore

shimmered.

Sir, give me a sleeping pill

so the desert out there gets some sleep.

And while the pharmacist

unfolded from his drowsiness, I admired

the equality of ailments on the shelves,

incurable and curable, all

in brightly colored, cheerful little boxes.

And suddenly I recognized you. In isolation.

Up there; where only fears eye could catch you.

Charonography: a poison bottles label.

Unrecognizable your lethal figure stripped bare.

Your hands formed a threats crossed X

on that innocent spot

where your neck once nonchalantly dreamed.

Sir, I screamed,

while I shook the ailments on the shelves,

what horrid mistakes are these,

how can you administer to the dead

additional doses of poison with no new



128

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, , .



Hail Never129

prescription and no divine will? How dare you,

just to advertise drastic Charonic products,

rip the bones out of figures weve struggled hard

to keep drastically whole

in vials of sealed illusion?

Return the original to me immediately.

I understand, the pharmacist said, but

no error will be acknowledged

after leaving the counter.



282

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The Finders Reward283

T H E B R A Z E N P L A G I A R I S T

Of the unremitting civil war

between existing and ceasing to

between speaking and ceasing to

finally

the only winner is

that famous war correspondent

writing.

A brazen unholy plagiarist

it copies

both speaking and ceasing to exist

expertly forged as

lasting

in the papers closemouthed ear.



Kiki Dimoula, Selected poems.pdf

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