POEM WRITTEN IN WATER
Near the Forbidden City, Beijing,
An old man with a brush
Writes verses on the ground. I ask
My friend to hurry up and translate it
Before the poem disappears into thin air! He takes
A sip of water and translates in one breath:
—Only what you would write in
Water, spared from your lips
On a blistering hot day—only that
Is worth writing down! All else
Is better left to evaporate into the air—
Only to return with the next rain.
Translated from Macedonian by Milan Damjanoski
ПЕСНА ОД ВОДА
Близу до Забранетиот град
еден старец со четка на тлото
пишува стихови. Го молам
пријателот да ми преведе брзо,
додека не испарила песната! Отпива
од водата и преведува во еден здив:
– Само тоа што би го запишал со
вода, која би ја одвоил од уста
во најжешкото пладне, само тоа
вреди да се запише! Сѐ друго е
подобро да се пушти да испари.
И да се врати со следниот дожд.
PERSONAL BESTS
In an Olympic year
I broke at least
seven personal bests:
1. Meeting with a mama bear:
my bicycle in a flash turned into
a racing motorcycle.
2. Meeting with a snake:
jumping as high as the first
cumulonimbus in sight.
3. Meeting with a liar:
taking flight to the farthest
hidden truth.
4. A race with time:
chasing after thirty
final deadlines
5. Fighting myself:
five knockouts of my ego
in the first round.
6. Meeting with a baby:
a sprinting dive to
the real me.
7. Meeting with you:
a heart-rate that no living soul
can ever measure!
Translated from Macedonian by Milan Damjanoski
РЕКОРДИ
Во Олимписка
година соборив барем
седум рекорди:
1. Средба со меца:
точакот за миг стана
тркачки мотор.
2. Средба со змија:
скок во вис до првиот
кумулонимбус.
3. Средба со лажго:
лет до најдалечната
скришна вистина.
4. Трка со време:
бркање на триесет
крајни рокови.
5. Борба со себе:
пет нокаути на его
во прва рунда.
6. Средба со бебе:
нуркачки спринт до
вистинското јас.
7. Средба со тебе:
пулс што никој жив не може
да го измери!
TWO SEAS
No one knows where exactly
one sea ends
or where the other begins
or where the border lies
or what marks the meeting point
of their warm and cold streams
small and big
(harmful and harmless) fish
No one knows which one
changes its color faster
(at sunrise and sunset)
or which one
is better for diving
and which one
is better to give yourself over to the waves
No one knows which
of the sunken ships and submarines
has been downed in one or another sea
or which one has lost
more fishermen and sailors
Nor which one of them yields us
more seafood on a daily basis
We don’t know which one heals our wounds quicker
which one we forget slower on our way home
which one clears our thoughts faster
which one wipes away our sand castles slower
which one shall give up sooner
its last grain of salt
which one shall be slower to release the last
starfish to return
back to the sky
Translated from Macedonian by Milan Damjanoski
ДВЕ МОРИЊА
Никој не знае каде
точно завршува едното
а каде почнува другото море
ни каде е границата
во која се мешаат
нивните топли и студени струи
мали и големи
(опасни и безопасни) риби
Никој не знае кое од нив
побрзо ја менува бојата
(на изгрејсонце и зајдисонце)
ни во кое од нив
е подобро да нуркаш
а во кое да им
се препуштиш на брановите
Не се знае ниту дали
потопените бродови и подморници
биле погодени во едното или во другото море
Ниту во кое од нив исчезнале
повеќе рибари и морнари
Ниту од кое од нив секојдневно си земаме
повеќе морски плодови
Не знаеме кое побрзо ги зацелува нашите рани
кое побавно го забораваме кога одиме дома
кое побрзо ги бистри нашите мисли
кое побавно ги урива замоците од песок
кое побрзо ќе ни ја даде
и последната грутка сол
кое побавно ќе ја пушти и последната
морска ѕвезда да му
се врати на небото
Vladimir Martinovski (1974) is a poet, short story writer, essayist and translator from N Macedonia. He teaches Comparative Poetics at the Sts Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje. He is the former president of the Association of Comparative Literature of Macedonia, member of the Executive Board of the International Association for Semiotic Studies and member of the International Comparative Literature Association and the European Network for Comparative Literary Studies. He is the recipient of the national poetry award, the Brother’s Miladinovci Award (awarded by the International Festival Struga Poetry Evenings, 2010). His poetry has been translated into English, Albanian, Bulgarian, German, Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian, Serbian, French, Croatian and Czech languages. He was invited to the China-Balkan Exchange Program – Beijing Poetry Festival in 2011.
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.