Most Read... John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Joshua WeinerAn Exchange with Daniel Tiffany/Fall 2020
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
Vahni CapildeoOn Judging Prizes, & Reading More than Six Really Good Books
(PN Review 237)
Christopher MiddletonNotes on a Viking Prow
(PN Review 10)
Next Issue Sinead Morrissey 'The Lightbox' Philip Terry 'What is Poetry' Ned Denny 'Nine Poems after Verlaine' Sasha Dugdale 'On learning that Russian mothers buy their soldier sons lucky belts inscribed with Psalm 90 to wear into battle' Rod Mengham 'Cold War Hot Air'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 123, Volume 25 Number 1, September - October 1998.

A Translation (i.m. Octavio Paz) Patrick Mackie

As through a magnifying glass, the light lights - quickly becoming flame.
Gone - gone - Where? - To what region of being? - To what existence in what worlds?
Like the kingfisher seen as a flash of topaz, the twigs weave as flame.
It opposes. My hands uncover. All the suns now become. I write.
Window on immensity. There is no one here. Presence without name.
Last night an ash-tree, on the point of declaiming something, didn't.
So that the disappearance of matter into light - magnificence -
Apparition. Golden Lotuses. Distant Neighbour. Exclamation.
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image