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 32, Volume 9 Number 6, July - August 1983.

Algerian Diary Vittorio Sereni

translated by Marcus Perryman and Peter Robinson

1
Above where from tower
to tower permission
now hollow, leaps and is returned,
the who-goes-there of the hour,
-just as below from turret to turret
from the uprights of the compound
morrocan guards calling to each other-
who goes there in the gloomy midnight's
quick snowflakes, who misses
the final toast on the wind's
dreadful black thresholds
of waiting, who goes . . .
A wretched picture it is
ours, not come to light.
And of oblivion only
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image