HILARY ELFICK

Moon over the Fal
 

Outlines wide snaking between dark oaks
exploring nervous nudges in the water,
flinching eddies tucking in
to hide beneath the swollen banks.

Etches wake of water vole,
heron’s frozen footstep.
Flicks from obscurity
perched egret, stooping snipe,
sea-trout stealing flies.

Waxing, waning,
sucks and spills the tides

holds this river in its stare.

Roxana-Monica Mîndrican

Hilary Elfick
 

Luna deasupra raului Fal*

Schiteaza contururi ample strecurandu-se printre stejarii intunecati
explorand radacinile viguroase din apa,
formand vartejuri, strangandu-se
pentru a se ascunde sub malurile umflate.

Se trezeste sobolanul de apa,*
se-aud pasii inghetati ai batlanului.*
Din intuneric se ivesc
egreta* cocotata, becata* garbovita,
pastravii ce prind musculite.
Crescand si descrescand,
Absoarbe si rastoarna valurile.

cuprinde raul in privirea-i incremenita.

*The River Fal, which flows through Cornwall, in the United Kingdom
- the Fall could also refer to a standing stone at the Inauguration Mound (Irish: an Forrad) on the Hill of Tara in County Meath in Ireland, which served as the coronation stone for the High Kings of Ireland. In legend, all of the kings of Ireland were crowned on the stone up to Muirchertach mac Ercae c. AD 500.

*It is a semi-aquatic mammal that resembles a rat. In fact, the water vole is often informally called the “water rat”.[3] Some authorities consider the Southwestern Water Vole in the same species, but it is now generally considered a distinct species.[2] [4] Water voles have rounder noses than rats, deep brown fur, chubby faces and short fuzzy ears; unlike the rat their tails, paws and ears are covered with hair.

*The herons are wading birds in the Ardeidae family. Some are called egrets or bitterns instead of herons. However, egrets are not a biologically distinct group from the herons, and tend to be named differently because they are mainly white and/or have decorative plumes, and while having the same build as the larger herons tend to be smaller. In Romanian the heron is called “batlan”.

*An egret is any of several herons, most of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Many egrets are members of the genera Egretta or Ardea which contain other species named as herons rather than egrets. The distinction between a heron and an egret is rather vague, and depends more on appearance than biology. The word "egret" comes from the French word "aigrette", referring to the long filamentous feathers that seem to cascade down an egret's back during the breeding season.

*a species of birds characterized by a very long, slender bill and cryptic plumage. The Gallinago snipes have a nearly worldwide distribution, the Lymnocryptes Jack Snipe is restricted to Asia and Europe and the Coenocorypha snipes are found only in New Zealand. The three species of painted snipe are not closely related to the typical snipes, and are placed in their own family, the Rostratulidae.