Venice masks

Monday 10 August 2015

To a Nose - Francisco de Quevedo

There was a man
              stuck
                  to a nose,
it was
     a superlalive
                 nose.
a scribe-nose.
a nose/executioner.
the sword
of a very
              swordy sword fish.

It was a sun
            dial very
                    badly calibrated
an alchemist’s
            beaker lost
                     in thought.
an elephant lying
face-up.
a more nosliy nosed
Ovid Naso.

It was a galley's
battering ram,
a pyramid
from Egypt,
the twelve
tribes of Noses.

lt was an infinite
nosenosenose
so much nose,
no fiendish,
on Anna’s face
it would have been
a crime.

Francisco de Quevedo (1580 - 1645) Spain
Translated by Brandon Holmquest

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please keep your comments relevant and free from abusive language. Thank you. Note that comments are moderated so it may be a day or two before your comment is posted - irrelevant or abusive comments will not be published.