Landay – August 1, 2015

Ice-Breakers on the Frozen Neva in St. Petersburg – Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovsky – 1877 (Wikipedia)

Ah – un brivido e un po’ di drama
Suo tocco gelido alla tramontana!

(Very loose translation … Ah – a shiver and a bit of drama – his frozen touch alla winter wind.)

The long face of winter looms before my eyes
Like that lover whom I’d hoped had gone away at last.

© G.s.k. ‘15

shadorma (a non-rhyming six-line poem in 3/5/3/3/7/5)
summer morn
yet I feel the cold
of winter
in my heart –
chilling the blood in my veins
just looking at you

© G.s.k. ‘15

Today at B&P’s Shadorma & Beyond, Paloma has directed us to write a Landay:

The landay originated in Afghanistan. It is a folk couplet that is oral in nature:

1. Twenty two syllables broken into two couplets
…(nine in the first, thirteen in the second);
2. Ends with a “ma” or “na” sound.
…This cannot be replicated in English;
3. May contain end rhyme;
4. Characterized by bawdiness, wit, and piercing truths
…despite the beauty of the language.

I wrote two landay … one in Italian because in that language it’s not impossible to use the “ma” and “na” endings … and in English because that’s my writing language and it’s a whole lot easier 🙂 .