Translated by Elida Melova

 

WE’RE TIRED

We’re tired of

the false looks

the emptied beer bottles

the false words

the dishonesty

the full-packed restaurants

we’re tired of the cities

of the streets that never end

despite being too narrow

we’re tired of

the poverty

the reality

the future

the indifference

we’re tired

of the emptiness

IDENTITY OF THE LETTER D

I take long strides to move into my own identity.

I sew the memories

In worn out, shaggy thoughts.

With rugged clothes and a rough skin on the hands.

With yellowing book covers nobody has read for ages.

And photographs crudely stuck on the wallpaper in my room.

Faded strides from frequent departures.

Words filled with belated meanings.

So how can you remain calm when somebody flirts with your intimacy?

Too much is not enough …

 

UNEXPECTED ARRIVALS

Unexpected arrivals fill the void.

Night swallows the doubt.

The city turns into a meaningless dot

circling in the infinity.

Throwing away useless junk

is making room for the ones, those we need.

We don’t fill the photo album with pictures,

but with memories.

Every time I set out on a journey

I carry with me a few pieces of clothes

and memories.

We forget the steps

of the ones who depart from our lives.

Perhaps sunsets are more honest/genuine,

because they are our final departures,

our arrivals at another place.

      fr Footnotes by Memory (PNB 2014, Skopje)

DRAGANA EVTIMOVA is a professor of Macedonian and South Slavic literature and Slovenian language, with a degree from “Blazhe Koneski” Faculty of Philology at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, the Republic of Macedonia. Together with the Maltese poet Antoine Cassar and the Slovenian poet Peter Semolic she coordinates the international project “Spread Poetry, Not Fear,” she has published five books including See You Soon. E. (an epistolary novel, written in collaboration with the visual artist Vladimir Lukash, 2017, and translated into Bulgarian) and The Distance between Two Points (haiku, 2018). A member of the Macedonian Writers’ Association. She actively translates literary works from Slovenian.