Pavlina Marvin (Greece)

The Perfect Outcast

Our baby, feeling entirely undesired, took offense
and, shortly before the abortion, mysteriously miscarried.
An unambiguous suicide. What irony!
Our unique little creature,
now a unique little worm
amid hospital waste.
I’m not sad.
What about you, honey?
Come one, brush away those tears.
If I’d put it in my palm and held it to you
you would have looked away repulsed.
What did you think it was, anyhow?
Just another little death, not undignified, since there was
no funeral.

Translated by Karen Emmerich, included in “Austerity Measures – The New Greek Poetry”, edited by Karen Van Dyck (Penguin Random House UK, 2016)

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Pavlina Marvin was born in Athens in 1987, but grew up in Hermoupolis of Syros. She studied Ηistory at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She is writing her PhD thesis on Greek national book policy. She was a co-publisher and co-editor of Teflon poetry magazine (2008-2011). Her first book, "Stories from all around my world", was published by Kichli Publishing (2017) and was awarded with the prize "Yannis Varveris", by the Hellenic Authors Association. As a writer and performer, she has been invited to participate in a range of interdisciplinary arts projects and festivals, in Greece and abroad. Part of her work has been translated in english, french, german, italian, spanish, Bengali, lithuanian and serbocroatian.