Hemisphere

 by Ágnes Nemes Nagy.

Here, is the upper hemisphere. Still grey,
where grey and liquid white
meet a liquid stairway,
and with the white whiter yet.

Here, is the upper zone where
on frosty grass thaw starts,
where the dew
stitching grass and air
makes the field seem higher –
an uncertain rainbow.

Then suddenly, God’s optic,
with its expanding triangle
like snap mutation
in prolonged epochs –
and from then, metal,
this concave height is metal
which sucks the last drop of haze
as the cursive traces
of a rising vertigo ;

because here,  is the horizon of white metals,
upper-half of the sphere-world,
late morning’s theology,

where midnight is a motionless
black cauldron in the big lakes.

from Between, by Ágnes Nemes Nagy, Trans Hugh Maxton.

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Above the Object

by Ágnes Nemes Nagy.

For there is light above every object.
Like polar circles, the shining trees are decked.
Comes one by one a glowing skybound regiment,
in caps of light , the ninety-two elements,
bearing on each brow the image of each mode –
I believe in the resurrection of the body.

Above the Object , by Ágnes Nemes Nagy.

Between, by Ágnes Nemes Nagy, Trans. by Hugh Maxton. Corvina Press , Budapest and Dedalus Press, Dublin. 1988. ‘Between’, reviewed by C Murray at Poetry Ireland ‘Between’ Translated by George Szirtes