Daiva Čepauskaitė (b. 1967 in Marijampolė), poet and dramatist, graduated from the Kaunas Medical Academy as a physician. She also took acting classes at the Kaunas Youth Musical Studio. Since 1990 she has been employed full-time as an actress by the Youth Chamber Theatre in Kaunas, where she lives.

She has published two collections of verse and her poems are included in the Arc anthology A Fine Line: New Poetry from Eastern and Central Europe (2004); she is also known as an author of plays for children.

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Featured poem

Poetry

I am a cow named Poetry,
I give a little milk,
usually 2.5% fat,
sometimes I manage
to squeeze out 3%,
I’m proud that it’s processed
with the most advanced technology
and in paper tetrapacks
reaches undemanding users,
I am sick with all the diseases
not unknown to living things
and carefully detailed
in veterinary textbooks,
I graze in a good herd
(the collective is friendly,
there are no language barriers),
I am afraid of horseflies and the zoo technician,
I can be useful in other ways too –
when the cold comes, when I defecate,
climb into my pile barefoot,
you’ll see how the warmth
rises from your feet
up to the back of your head.

Daiva Čepauskaitė, translated by Jonas Zdanys
from A Fine Line: New Poetry from Eastern & Central Europe (Arc, 2004)