Invitation
And now let us finally go now let us clearly depart In this unwitnessed walk finally now there In the sack there is the bread and the stone there is the knife and the heart […]
Articles
Meeting with Hydra
Eye Between wave and wave between evils without ground without roots in this blue in this grey in this black of bitter burnings I will blossom in foam white rosy malicious eye no more will it […]
A Record of Hope
And this was writ By the captive who does not rejoice May he be the last captive The last man who has lost hope Translated by Omer Hadžiselimović and Stephen P. Meyer Published with permission […]
Lullaby
How delicate and fragile you are And how beautiful and pure Like every child when born Your hair silken and bedewed Like the leaves of a plant’s young stem in April Your lips are rose […]
Secret
Like a bird sitting On the right Hand Oops Away flies My bird Published with permission from the Mak Dizdar Foundation Translated by Keith Doubt
Hand
This hand says to you stop And contemplate your own hands. Published with permission of the Mak Dizdar Foundation Translated by Keith Doubt
With Hand Raised
With hand raised to endless sky To great monuments around me I say All daily words entangled by the grave Which ensnare me in painful motion Pain magnifying on the way To the one Stop […]
Recognition
At the far end of death the hues shall be better Published with permission from the Mak Dizdar Foundation Translated by Keith Doubt and Wayles Browne © 2012 Keith Doubt and Wayles Browne
A Word about Man
FIRST Wrought within the body sewn into the hide You’re dreaming of the sky once more spreading wide Within the brain enclosed in the heart detained Ever dreaming sunlight but by darkness stained Prisoner of […]
Compass
Above is Polaris And below Venus Over there the Northern wind and yonder the Southern Who’ll tell me where the Path to Love is And where the Path to Death Published with permission from the […]
The Sirens
Come, renowned man Of great Achaean fame Come Does your great heart That turned to stone in Troy Does your hardened heart This song fear Come renowned man Published with permission from the Mak Dizdar […]
Bridge
I dreamt I would someday build a bridge to the sun but of that wish remains only the foundation stone deep in my heart Translated by Anne Pennington – Published with permission from the Mak […]
Vertical and Horizontal
How shall we bury the screams deeply into the ground of oblivion So they do not reach us on these arduous paths How shall we place every cherished word and smile in these tight bags […]
Day of Rest Seventh Day
The Book of Genesis Chapter One In the beginning thou didst create the heaven and the earth And the earth was without form and void And there was darkness over the abyss And thou saidest […]
Paths
You have resolved that I shall not be and at all costs You come towards me and in your haste Laughing and weeping You sweep And destroy All before you You have resolved to destroy […]
Circe
Still she sings boisterously for a long time And we do not really know who she is or what she is And when we eat these well-baked tasty cakes That she herself prepares and serves […]
Conversation
To R. Konstantinović I wanted to listen, hear, understand the conversation between one wave and one conch But they told me Nice, but have you been listening, hearing, understanding the conversation of those who walk […]
Gorčin
Here lieth Gorčin the soldier In his own land On an alien Patrimony I lived But I summoned death Night and day I never hurt a fly I went off To be a soldier I’ve […]
A Word About Man
FIRST Enclosed within a body encased in skin You dream of heaven’s fecund return Housed in a brain imprisoned in a heart The sun you revere from this dark cave Imprisoned in flesh locked up […]
Dark Blue River
None can say where it is found We know little but ’tis known Beyond mountain, beyond valley Beyond seven, beyond eight And still sadder and still madder Over weary, over bitter Over hawthorn, over thornbush […]