Gabi Reigh

ALT AURA CHRISTI Translated by Gabi Reigh from Romanian Aura Christi describes her poetry collection Austere Gardens as the product of ‘a lively dialogue with peers, with friends, with grass and trees, with heaven and earth, and [that] at the same time, it is a sustained dialogue with the Deity, the omnipresent Source.’ She cites the German philosopher Leibniz as an infl uence on her work, stating that her poems are a means of exploring afresh his refl ections on ‘the meaning of existence, death, life, happiness’. Christi’s collection has been translated into German and Spanish, while her other works have been translated into another fi een languages. Translations of Christi’s poems were also included in the anthology Women at the Border—Ten Romanian Contemporary Poets, published in Spain in 2022, alongside others by celebrated poets such as Ana Blandiana, Nina Cassian and Ruxandra Cesereanu.

ALT Sleep Sleep. The night is unravelling. Even the demons are dozing. The trees lean against the moon. No one is calling your name. All round, there’s a breeze of emptiness, of endings. Help me end this story. Rise up, unshackled. Ease into slow death. You’re forgo en; the horizon rolls to the end, Enters a season of bleeding. Inhale deeply and count in your head Don’t question where the spirit moves you. Remember: we’re all only water and earth. Bleed out the poison from your wounds. Climb down from your cross. Sleep. A cloud presses the window shut. A wing reaches out through your spirit. You turn to face twilight or death. It bears down harder and harder, This season of blood, this severed horizon. Close your eyes. Someone is telling you That there is no such thing as night vultures, Or austere gardens, or girls drawn in blood Or silver unicorns. Nod to everything. Fall into your flesh, into your earth.