Poetry Travels with Anna Blasiak and Lisa Kalloo: THE KNOWLEDGE OF EVERYTHING by Eleni Cay, translated by John Minahane and the Author

Swifts sleep, mate, eat and feed in the air.
They cut the sky with their scythe tails, lay
the clouds on blue fields in layers of ivory white.
You need a shelter. Marked roads. Shepherds
and machines to craft them to immaculate.
Still, there are holes in your roofs and paths –
and you can't even see them. The knowledge
that cast you out of Eden is merely a foundation
for the boundaries of your soul. The forces
that steer your addictions cross
with the God you domesticated in
the gaps between your thoughts.

Eleni Cay

Translated by John Minahane and the Author

Poem from Eleni Cay’s Preludes / Prelúdiá, Versopolis at Ledbury Poetry Festival 2021.

Eleni Cay is a Slovakian-born poet living in Norway. Her award-winning first collection was published in Slovak (Cakanka Press), German (Hein Verlag), English (Parthian Books) and is forthcoming in Greek and French. She is the author of three pamphlets (Westbury Arts and Eyewear Press), one chapbook (Poetry Space) and her second collection titled Love Algorithm was published by Black Spring Press in October 2021. Eleni’s poems appeared in several anthologies and journals, including Acumen, Atticus Review, The Cardiff Review and Poetry Ireland Review. Eleni is known for her multimedia poetry, which has been screened at international festivals and featured on Button Poetry. For regular updates, check out Eleni’s Instagram page @elenicay and her digital home www.eleni-cay.com

John Minahane was born in Baltimore, Co. Cork, Ireland in 1950. He was educated in Ireland and worked there from 1971 to 1996 at a variety of occupations. He contributed to and sometimes edited some Irish literary journals. Since 1996, he has lived and worked in Slovakia. From 1996 until 2013, he taught English at the Akadémia vzdelávania in Bratislava. Since 2003 he has also produced English translations of literary, musicological, art-historical, ethnological, and other writings in Slovak, and recently also of some writings in Czech. He is currently engaged full-time in translating.

Photo by Lisa Kalloo

Check out the Poetry Travels book list on bookshop.org.

Read previous poems in the Poetry Travels series:

ALIBI by Ewa Brzoza Birk, translated by Anna Blasiak

PATIENCE by Ziba Kirbassi, translated by Stephen Watts

HARLEQUIN by Arjola Zadrima, translated by Vlora Konushevci

SIRENS by Victoria Amelina, translated by Anatoly Kudryavitsky

JOB: A WOMAN by Dominika Lewicka-Klucznik, translated by Anna Blasiak

BAGS by Blerina Rogova Gaxha, translated by Vlora Konushevci

TONGUEFISH by Yolanda Castaño, translated by Keith Payne

WHAT DO YOU NEED by Friederike Mayröcker, translated by Christina Daub

A WORK OF BIOGRAPHY by Max Jacob, translated by Ian Seed