A poem for "J.M.W. Turner" by Petros Golitsis

J.M.W. TURNER*

Your mother
was inclining towards
insanity
(she was finally committed
to the London Insane Asylum)

Your sister
died
at the age of eight

I’m standing now
before the
Typhoon coming on
(the slave ship)
slavers throwing overboard
the dead and dying.
Oil on canvas, 91x138cm., 1840.

This dying
changes everything

the dying keep on going down
to the silent bottom

of the sea


*Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), English painter.
(translated from the Greek by Yannis Goumas)
_____

Η μητέρα σου
έρεπε προς
την τρέλα
(κλείστηκε τελικά
στο London’s insane asylum)

Η αδερφή σου
πέθανε
στα οκτώ της χρόνια

Στέκομαι τώρα
μπροστά στο
“Typhoon coming on
(the slave ship),
slavers throwing overboard
the dead and dying”,
Oil on canvas, 91x138cm, 1840.

Αυτό το dying
τα αλλάζει όλα

οι dying βουλιάζουν
στο βουβό βυθό

αδιάκοπα