Immanuel Mifsud was born in Malta in 1967. He is a poet and a writer, Works of his have been translated into English, Czech, French, Catalan, Italian and other languages. He has written five poetry collections, amongst which KM (bilingual edition Maltese-English, 2005), Confidential Reports (English version, Cork: Southword Editions), and Poland Pictures (English, 2007). In 2002 he won the National Literary Award with his short story collection Sara Sue Sammut’s Strange Stories (Minima: 2002) and placed second with his very controversial book Chemistry.
Immanuel Mifsud has also written stories for children and recently a collection of lullabies.
He lives in Malta and teaches Maltese literature at the University of Malta.
SOME POEMS FROM FORMENTOR, MALLORCA
Immanuel Mifsud
ANNA
She exposed her legs when she spotted the sea,
waded down to her waist inviting it in.
She clawed at the sand on the bed with her toes
which deliberated what her next step should be
in a sea she thought had been waiting for her.
I found the sea waiting. It smiled.
I found it fresh, ready to love me.
I bared myself so it could see me well.
It asked me to come down, quickly, to make love.
It asked me to enter it so it could enter me.
It asked me to keep on singing till I came.
Until this song could swim in the coitus.
UNTITLED 1
The sea is a big and virile man
waiting for the first woman to love.
The sea is a fleshly woman
waiting for the first man so that together
they can change into a poem full of blood
spilling onto the whiteness of a sheet.
UNTITLED 2
The sea approaches you slowly. Calmly,
with the hushed tones of the sad. With sorrow.
With the slow pace of those who age and wait.
It approaches you to wet you, to love you,
to hold you close, to lull you, to lay you down to sleep.
The sea approaches you slowly. Calmly.
LAIA
You play with the water like a little girl;
You roll up your trousers and pull up your hair; And laugh while you make the pebble skim
over the silent sea of Formentor.
Your eyes are the colour of my overwhelming sorrow
when I consider that this is only yet another trip
like all the other trips which I have gathered
and you’re another tale without an end.
from KM, (2005, Malta: Klabb Kotba Maltin), © Immanuel Mifsud, © English translation Maria Grech Ganado
Published with the permission of Immanuel Mifsud