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Ritsos, Yiannis – Selected Poems - Almost a Conjurer
Identifier
029403
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
From Selected Poems, tr. N. Stangos (1974)
Almost a Conjurer
From a distance he lowers the light of the oil lamp, he moves the chairs
without touching them. He gets tired. He takes off his hat and
fans himself
Then, with a drawn out gesture, he produces three playing cards
from the side of his ear. He dissolves a green, pain-soothing star
in a glass of water, stirring it with a silver spoon
He drinks the water and the spoon
He becomes transparent.
A goldfish can be seen swimming inside his chest.
Then, exhausted, he leans on the sofa and shuts his eyes.
'I have a bird in my head,' he says. 'I can't get it out.'
The shadows of two huge wings fill the room.