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This poem is taken from PN Review 179, Volume 34 Number 3, January - February 2008.

Odessa, poring over a map of the Black Sea (translated from the German by Richard Dove) Joachim Sartorius

("Odessa, bei Betrachten einer Karte des Schwarzen Meeres")
                                                                              for Rebecca Horn
Grey-green it is here,
the Atov Sea,
the sight of desolate steppes
where Barbarians swept all away,
Greeks, Romans, Scyths, Sarmates.
Little rectangles, there are many,
point to the graves,
princesses bedded deep in the earth
along with the bridles of 49 horses
and any number of diadems.
Only their knuckles
gnawed down
by mice.

Rich brown the Caucasus here, snow too,
white striae with a thin blue margin,
...


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