This is a micro-anthology of poems written by authors from different countries of the Balkans during the pandemic, on the human condition during the pandemic.
Ljerka Toth (Croatia)
ISOLATION
My life in isolation
is the storm facing –
a change of thinking
voiceless speech
invocation of possible miracle
and a call to Prayer.
A thought captivated me
Awake waitings
Time duration ends
waiting for the new Heaven
in an unfolded abyss of time.
I love my waitings
Relentless dizziness
in some unfinished circles
in pain from the sound of silence
through the abyss of loneliness.
Like chess pieces
are my movements
unfinished path
a flash escaped from imagined
whisper in the circles discovered.
Outside is an unknown danger
Near end of tragedy
Nameless crossing of pain
Calling through time
Primordial separation or pass.
Translated by Lence Milosevska
Zoran Pejkovski (North Macedonia)
TWILIGHT TIME
Time calmness,,
time fraud,
dead end,
live heat,
sting that mourns,
silence that screams.
Twilight time
harrasing decay,
ash time,
bone rust
water in catacombs,
fire in bed,
dead time,
time – parade,
zombie time,
column of departed,
chills,
fear,
epitaph.
Translated by Vesna Milevska
Vesna Mundishevska-Veljanovska (North Macedonia)
(NO)TIME
The doorbell
and the modern self-isolation
are swallowing the rhapsody
of their loneliness.
The balcony is a park
of the dreamed cheerfulness.
In the time differentials
of the cross fire
of the volatility and computability
we emptied all the creams with protective factors
from the prickly tongues of the (in)human radiation.
In the cracked mirror of the essence
dignity bleeds into the joints of the obedience.
From the pot of the indecisiveness
evaporates the breath of the presence.
The silence of the condensed quietness
thunders like never before.
Translated from Macedonian by Vesna Mundishevska-Veljanovska
Vanya Angelova (Bulgaria)
EYES
The eyes do not always
tell the truth
I want to see.
I have a chance to be deceived
one more time.
How many chances
for the others
and nothing for me!
The light is enough for me.
I’m ready to raise my eyes!
FOREIGN FAITH
Foreign faith
which borrowed
you offer it to everyone,
It’ll not do anything to me
nor to the other
beggars.
Keep
the moldy crumbs,
and feed with them
your children!
I’m used to starve.
My soul is often closed
wandering
homeless
through hell.
I do not want faith
from the others.
I was loosing my own on the ways
If you come back, come back!
If not,
I will seek again!
Translated from Bulgarian by Vanya Angelova
Bozhko Angelov (Bulgaria)
***
I look into the eyes of Christ.
A white dove made a nest in my heart.
***
It’s raining
in the eyes of a girl –
a rainbow rose.
***
I hear a dove
in the morning timidly.
The lindens are rustling.
***
Before your eyes
passes slowly
my shadow.
***
Nightingale songs.
Sunny house.
An angel’s gaze.
Translated from Bulgarian by Bozhko Angelov
Snežana Aleksić – Stanojlović (Serbia)
SILENCE
There is time for sowing
and for waiting…
That is the time
of patience and strength.
Speechlenessness
in the unwordable…
The love by silence
in seed that germinates…
The love by silence
in bird that does not sing…
The love by silence
in grass that sprouts…
The love by silence
before prayer
and repentance…
The love by silence
in mercy
of forgiveness…
Call of God
in us…
Translated by Vesna Mundichevska-Veljanovska
