on this sea parched like teiresias' breast

[lemorttoussaint]

from "Voyvodina" by Ivan Gadjanski (trans. Charles Simic)

and the locusts
pachytilli migrarii asiatici the storm carried
to this country where even the north wind blows from the east
pyrgomorphellae serbivae with legs like curved sabers
driven by the smoke of nargileh on the trail of arseny's cattle
with the fleece of the golden grass
having stopped momentarily on the top of some impassible wall
descended from flat tara to this flat terrain
light lithe dragonflies green locustae viridissimae
from the boeotian fields of teiresias
who sees in the dark and brings she-goats' udders with him
dragonflies sagae serratae mediterranea
on this sea parched like teiresias' breast
on these endless deserted desert fields
beyond the borders of the christian god
like those two brothers among the stars
where a living isan went with a dead isan
on this soil they eat round bread
dragonflies light lithe dragonflies viridissimae
grylli campestres and grylli domestici
swarmed here and caught here
with the music of their grass bows they keep domestic order