Dainius Dirgėla, Self-portrait

Dainius Dirgėla

Poems from the collection Finišo kreivoji (the finish curve)
Translated by Eglė Elena Murauskaitė

Dainius Dirgėla (b. 1969) is a Lithuanian poet, playwright, and photographer born in Vilnius. He graduated from Vilnius University in 1993 with a degree in Lithuanian studies and classical philology. Dirgėla has worked in advertising agencies for many years. He is a member of the Lithuanian Writer’s Union (2014), the Lithuanian Photographers Association (2020), and of the poetry group Svetimi. He is the author of seven books of poetry, with the most recent book Finišo kreivoji (the finish curve) published in 2026 by Baziliskas. Dirgėla also writes haiku and haigu poetry.

negative and positive

negative, you’re always negative
angry grunts from every which way

but dip me in the lord’s developer
and my true form will become apparent

 

nida. sun

the afternoon sun
against my face

the north wind
against my back

the sun
checks my moles

the wind
checks my spine

 

nida. can(nots)

i cannot buy the house of thomas mann
in nida

i can afford a moment of
loneliness on a terrace with a view of the lagoon

i can walk the parnidis dune unphotographed
by sutkus1Antanas Sutkus is a prominent Lithuanian photographer; the reference is to his iconic image of Jean-Paul Sartre walking in Nida, with his partner Simone de Beauvoir cropped from the frame. with my partner uncropped, in the frame

i cannot walk by the sea
from nida to königsberg

i can open the old maps of east prussia
and ride a postal carriage from paris to petersburg
via the curonian spit

i cannot dig my way through to the old dune-buried nida
my kids can bury me on the nida nudist beach

temporarily
for the summer
until further notice
until resurrection
until i can walk on water
until the ascent into heaven

that blends
with the horizon

that blends
with my internal

hell

 

the good news

there is also a bit of good news
only the one today

your nails are growing back nicely
the doctor is pleased

soon you will be able to
nail it in life, again

continue the intake
as prescribed

of the medicine,
not of life

send me a picture
in two months

of your nails
not a selfie

 

the memory of water

70 percent of the human body consists of water

does the water
remember the ice

is the water recalled
by the fog

what do we recall
the two of us, who used to exchange bodily fluids

your ice
my mist
our waters

evaporate

all for naught

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