Image: © Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries
There’s this woman as eccentric as Christ
walking on water. She writes poems
on her painted toes,
which will never touch the ground because she slips them
into platforms high as half her head, or higher.
Grey pigeon feathers decorate her hair
along with leaves of fresh mint and laurel.
And each night she leans out her window singing —
always the same sad song about a young man
who went fishing one day and never returned — he drowned.
Then the torrents begin at the first sign of dawn
until the blue painted under her eyes
trickles down her cheeks and past her chin,
dripping on her bosom where a pistol hides.
So that one day ….
This is the poem she wrote last night
when she saw me walking
opposite her house in Rue Garenne:
Don’t walk under my window again
for I’ll mistake you for someone else. And I’ll ask you up
and show you the love I have for the clouds over my bed.
My bed is a book full of nothing but typos.
When I read through it I don’t know if I should laugh or cry.
And while you’re here I’ll let you look into my eyes.
I’ll lift my skirt so you can see for yourself
the main road leading to death.
But don’t think for a moment that afterwards you’ll leave … or want to get out.
For your eyes will crack the moment they meet mine,
then they’ll shatter as soon as they see the rest.
One day I’ll pass by again.
I’ll get her a bunch of roses, and attach them
to the dark clouds that are hanging over her chamber.
I’ll kiss her cheeks, and then I’ll tell her:
If you want, turn back your sheets;
I’d like to lie on your bed.
“Rue Garenne” was first published in the Maltese by Klabb Kotba Maltin (St. Venera, Malta) in the 2016 poetry volume Ħuta (Fish).
____
Immanuel Mifsud is a six‑time national award-winning author, playwright, and visual artist. A European Union Prize for Literature recipient and winner of an English PEN award, his works have been translated into 17 languages. His memoir, In the Name of the Father (And of the Son), has been published in the U.K. by Parthian Books (Wales) and in France by Gallimard, as well as in other countries. Two volumes of Mifsud’s poetry have been published in the U.K.: Confidential Reports by Southword Editions (Ireland) and The Play of Waves by Arc Publications (England). Professor Mifsud lectures at the University of Malta.
Ruth Ward is a writer and translator of poetry and fiction whose works have been published in literary journals and anthologies, and as part of artistic collaborations spanning Europe, Asia, and North America. Her translations have been read at the U.S. Library of Congress and the European Union Delegation in the U.S. and have been broadcast on the BBC. Váh, a bilingual collaboration of text and visuals was published in 2024 by Klabb Kotba Maltin (Malta).