Tuesday, April 24, 2018

What poetry was for

By Jefimija (c 1350. - c 1405) - http://www.spc.rs/Muzej/Tekstil/pohvala-v.jpg, Javno vlasništvo, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12872453



What poetry was for





Embroidery requires good eyes and a steady hand. It is best done by an open window on a snowy day. The thread should be made of gold. Everybody knows that. This is how poetry was written back then. With gold letters on a red shroud. Or, at least, this is how women wrote poetry back then. Maybe it’s just how this woman wrote this poem. On a red shroud with a gold thread. A needle was required too. Maybe she pricked her finger, maybe not, we don’t know. The poem was embroidered on a funeral shroud. This is what poetry was for. Or, at least, it’s what this woman wrote this poem for. The woman was a nun at the time, though she hadn’t always been a nun. The woman's name was Jefimija. The funeral shroud was for a man who had died in a battle. The woman had her own battles too, and she fought them in silence, sitting by an open window on a snowy day. 




GloPoWriMo Day 24 - an elegy
This poem was inspired by Jefimija, the first Serbian female poet. 

4 comments:

  1. I really like the prose elegy for a life not lived. A beautiful poem.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Britt. Sorry for my late reply.

      Delete
  2. I'd like to hear that woman speak. Thanks for introducing us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She was amazing! I am sorry I haven't thought of her before. She deserves much more recognition that she has received in Serbian culture. The picture I used at the beginning of my post is actually her embroidered poem. There is a translation here (if you ignore the Serbian text and scroll down to Page 6), though it is done as a block of text and hasn't retained the original shape: http://knjizevnaistorija.rs/editions/148Djoric.pdf . It is an old poem, a little hard to read.

      Delete