THE BLACK POEM
Always black
On black
In black
It unfolds
Like a tear in the dark
Or the backdrop of the stars
Black is the courtyard
Of her dreams
And the black pillars
Of her soul
Like a black subterranean river
Black leaves
Black butterfly
That flutters,
A black thing on a black palm
Resting under the shadow of the word
Flashing her white smile for an instant
Only to leave the black ink of her thought behind.
Translated from Macedonian by Milan Damjanovski
ЦРНА ПЕСНА
Секогаш црна
На црно
Во црно
Се распетлува
Ко солза во мракот
Ил’ ѕвездена опачина
Црно е предворјето
На нејзините сништа
И црни столбовите
На нејзината душа
Ко црна понорница
Црно лисје
Црна пеперуга
Што се прпелка
Црна таа в црна дланка
Си починува во сенката од зборот
За миг ја покажува белата насмевка
И од мислата црно мастило остава.
WE, THE POETS
We play with rhythm at the expense of grammar
With emotions at the expense of symmetry
We gamble on the moment, on the soul’s flight
As if there is no past and tomorrow is nameless
We cast two white dice against eternity
And then we wait…
Translated from Macedonian by Milan Damjanovski
НИЕ, ПОЕТИТЕ
Си играме со ритамот на сметка на граматиката
Со чувството на сметка на симетријата
Се обложуваме на мигот, на летот на душата
Ко да нема минато, а утрешницата е безимена
Фрламе две бели коцки наспроти вечноста
И чекаме…
REFUGEES (SALAM ALEYKUM EUROPE)
Pebbles biting their heels like fangs
Encrusted sweat under the armpits
Sticky bait for the thirsty flies,
Still they press ahead
With a glazed look pleading
For a loaf of dry bread
That can be soaked in the driving rain
And kneaded on their hearts
So, they can continue to press ahead
And get to where white doves
Speak Latin to the sky.
Translated from Macedonian by Milan Damjanovski
БЕГАЛЦИ (СЕЛАМ АЛЕЈКУМ ЕВРОПА)
Камчиња како песјаци в петици
И закоравена пот под пазуви
На која жедни муви се лепат
Продолжуваат напред
Низ матен поглед да молат
За бар сува кришка леб
Па во дожд ќе ја наквасат
И од срце ќе ја протријат
За понатаму да можат да продолжат
Каде што белите гулаби
Латински зборуваат со небото.
Andrej Al-Asadi was born in London, United Kingdom, in 1996. He is the author of poetry books: Midnight Blues (2014), Under the Dervish Sikke (2018), Empyrean Geometry (2019) and Everybody is a mirror to everybody (2022). For his collection of short stories, The Other Past, Al-Asadi won the award for the best debut prose manuscript “The New Ones” in 2018. He published his second book of short stories in 2021, The Morning of the Insomniacs. He has taken part in a number of poetry readings and events such as the Struga Poetry Evenings, Stih u Regiji (SUR) in Zagreb, Croatia and the 5th Patras World Poetry Festival in Patras, Greece. Andrej has been nominated three times for the prestigious Brothers Miladinov Award in 2018, 2020 and 2022. He was interviewed for the prestigious American magazine World Literature Today. His poetry has been translated in various languages such as Serbian, Croatian, Italian, English and Arabic. He is currently a member of the executive board of the Skopje Poetry Festival.
Milan Damjanovski (1977) is a professor of Literature at the Department of English Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philology “Blazhe Koneski, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University. He holds a PhD. in English Literature. He has translated from Macedonian into English works from prominent contemporary Macedonian writers and has worked for literary organizations such as Struga Poetry Evenings and the Macedonian PEN Reviews. His translation of the novel The Mark by Blazhe Minevski was nominated for the prestigious Dublin Impac Award 2013. He is the editor of Blesok Prose and has published a book of aphorisms, Status of Our Times, for Blesok Publishing.