Medusa by Diana Anphimiadi
Featuring: Natalia Bukia-Peters, Jean Sprackland, Diana Anphimiadi
Diana Anphimiadi is one of Georgia’s leading contemporary poets. With subtle lyricism, her poetry describes the most intense experiences of many women’s lives: childbirth; love, with its many complications and death. This poem was translated by Natalia Bukia-Peters and the UK poet Jean Sprackland.
Anphimiadi’s own paternal roots lie in Pontus, a historically Greek region on the southern coast of the Black Sea which at one time stretched from central Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey, to the borders of the Colchis in modern western Georgia. Home to the legendary Golden Fleece, West Pontus is sometimes referred to as the home of the Amazons. Undoubtedly, Diana’s Greek roots inspired her use of the goddesses and other female figures from Greek mythology. Both Helen of Troy and Medusa are conjured up; these figures allow the poet to speak out – throwing her voice through centuries of experience – against the unchanged restrictions placed on women in patriarchal societies.
This is part of our new rebranded weekly release: the Dual Poetry Podcast, one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre. As ever we will be releasing a translated poem each week.
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