WORLD VOICES

THE MARROW
  BY NIELS HAV


Contents


Home
Introduction

About the Author

I Poets & Poetics

In Defense of Poets
My Fantastic Pen
The Poem
On His Blindness 1-3
Epigram

II Love

Blind Man's Bluff
Women of Copenhagen
When I Go Blind
Show Me Your Breasts
Café Pushkin
Moscow
The Soul Dance in Its Cradle

III Conclusions

Deepest Inside All
Tokyo, Encore
The Vietnamese Arises
The Conclusion
Visit from My Father
The Marrow
Encouragement

Acknowledgments

World Voices Home

The Literary Explorer
Writers on the Job
Books Forgotten
Thomas E. Kennedy
Walter Cummins
Web Del Sol



Blind Man's Bluff

They covered his eyes with a scarf
and spun him around, he loved that game.
Dizzy from the dark, he reeled ecstatic
between his cousins, three Graces
squealing with laughter. They laughed at him, his euphoria,
which also was theirs. He caught them one by one,
but guessed systematically wrong, and the party continued
the entire afternoon. He was happy in his darkness,
tireless and bold, a line had been crossed,
he touched their blushing faces;
his hands were happy. And he wished only
to go on when they mercilessly loosened the bow
and pulled the scarf from his eyes. He stood bewildered
on the brink of tears, shocked by the light
that for a moment turned him completely blind.

Translation Martin Aitken
© Niels Hav