Most Read... Rebecca WattsThe Cult of the Noble Amateur
(PN Review 239)
John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(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 Stav Poleg's Banquet Stanley Moss In a concluding conversation, with Neilson MacKay John Koethe Poems Gwyneth Lewis shares excerpts from 'Nightshade Mother: a disentangling' John Redmond revisits 'Henneker's Ditch'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 139, Volume 27 Number 5, May - June 2001.

Poems (translated by Marilyn Hacker) Hédi Kaddour

Truth

A taste of honeyed apples, and of something
Slightly acid escorts the heavy tears
Of wine, and its green-reflected amber
Speaks of long-past autumns. The debate
Between nature and time has been
Reopened this feast-day, when a dinner guest
Remarks: If Voltaire writes fairy-tales
It's because truth, in order to be understood
Must first be believed.
On the carpet
In front of the fireplace doze
Two cats we must step over carefully
To bring the sliced warm bread, the terrine
Of woodcock and foie gras
With hand-ground pistachios.


A Pause in the Mountains
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image