Wolf Shadow by Vasko Popa - Scottish Poetry Library

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.

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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About this poem

Learning Resources

Wolves: The Written World

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Vasko Popa1922 - 1991

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