Dominykas Norkūnas (b. 1993) – Lithuanian poet and translator from English, German, Dutch and Latvian languages. He studied German philology in Vilnius University. Since 2020 he has been the chairman of "Bazilisko ambasada" – a publishing house focusing on poetry.

His debut poetry book "Darkness Is An Octopus" was published in 2021 and was awarded the Zigmas Gėlė Prize for the best annual poetry debut. In 2020 he was awarded the "Poetry Spring Prize" for the translations of world's poetry into Lithuanian. In 2021 Norkūnas also became the laureate of the Lithuanian Union of Literary Translators' Prize for the best debut in translation (for Jerome Rothenberg's collection "Khurbn"). In addition, he prepared literary translations for the anthology of young Georgian poets (co-translated with Greta Ambrazaitė).

I WAKE UP BLIND ON SUNDAYS

I wake up blind on Sundays

and my voice is a white wind

in which all backstreets end

I stab at the Hosts with a knife

‘cause I covet blood from beyond

I search for amulets in tree-hollows

I maim lizards and squirrels

for I am interested

in their divinity

I break off

spiders‘ legs

and observe

the death of those

that

feed on death.

Translated into English by Kerry Shawn Keys