That’s Sicily By Adam Zagajewski

At night we sailed past shadowed,

enigmatic shores. Far off, the huge leaves

of hills swayed like a giant’s dreams.

Waves slapped the boat’s wood,

a warm wind kissed the sails,

stars rushed, helter-skelter,

to tell the history of the world.

That’s Sicily, someone whispered,

three-cornered island, owl’s breath,

handkerchief of the dead.

TRANSLATED FROM THE POLISH BY CLARE CAVANAGH

From “Mysticism for Beginners: Poems” by Adam Zagajewski (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: 72 pp., $12 paper)