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  • Wolf Shadow
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Wolf Shadow

Vasko Popa

They say my great-grandmother
The witch Sultana Urošević
Had a she-wolf’s shadow

By moonlight she never
Went out of doors

So no one should tread on her shadow
Take her secret powers
And kill her on the spot

They say
It’s from great-grandmother I have
These eyes and this tongue

I don’t know about the wolf shadow

By moonlight always
And often by sunlight
I walk backwards

Just in case


Vasko Popa

from Vasko Popa: Collected Poems, edited by Francis R. Jones, introduced by Ted Hughes, translated by Anne Pennington and Francis R. Jones (London: Anvil Press, 1997)

translated by Anne Pennington and Francis R. Jones

Reproduced by kind permission of the publisher.

Tags:

families gothic Halloween inheritance night Serbia supernatural superstition witches

About this poem

This poem, representing Serbia, is part of The Written World – our collaboration with BBC radio to broadcast a poem from every single nation competing in London 2012.

Learning Resources

SQA Key: National 5        Higher
  • Wolves: The Written World

    Classroom resource (S1-S3) using two poems from Croatia and Serbia about wolves.
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Vasko Popa

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