GloPoWriMo Day 30

Photo on Flickr by Andrew Hurley

It is the last day of GloPoWriMo. Our challenge today was to translate a poem. This is the first time I have tried my hand at poetry translation and I have chosen Critique of the Metaphor by my favourite Serbian poet, Branko Miljkovic. But before that I wanted to write a poem of my own on this last day of our poetry challenge. It is a found poem which has been patched together from various translations of Serbian poetry I found online. The sources will be listed underneath.

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=294350

Mining for Silver

This morning I have forgotten a song.

The song I kept hearing through my dream all night,

Through the midnight air and densely woven trees.

In Maydan where they mine the purest silver

dream is an ancient and forgotten truth

that no one can verify anymore.

I seek mercy

for the simple and guileless,

Oh, my sunny ancestry, that sunken blood.

The little box which contains the world,

She has no one but the Sun and me.

This is indeed the greatest love poem,

yet there is not a word about love.

Nothing is lost in fire

it has only been interpreted.

Here are my sources:

http://www.rmaks.zikic-stiftung.de/assets/pdf/SheSleepsPerhaps.pdf Vladislav Petkovic Dis, "She Sleeps Perhaps", translated by Rajko Maksimovic https://sites.google.com/site/projectgoethe/Home/dhura-jaksic/kroz-ponoc Djura Jaksic, "Through the Midnight Air", translator unknown http://www.kosovo.net/history/battle_of_kosovo.html, "Musicic Stephan" (Serbian Epic Poem), translated by John Matthias and Vladeta Vuckovic https://sites.google.com/site/projectgoethe/Home/branko-miljkovic/poeziju-ce-svi-pisati Branko Miljkovic, "Everyone Will Write Poetry", translated by Aleksandra Milanovic

Desanka Maksimovic, "For Those who Stumble over the Treshold", translator unknown https://sites.google.com/site/projectgoethe/Home/branko-miljkovic/dis Branko Miljkovic, "Dis", Translated by Gavrilo Dosen

https://sites.google.com/site/projectgoethe/Home/vasko-popa/poslednja-vest-o-maloj-kutiji Vasko Popa, "Last News about the Little Box", translated by Charles Simic https://sites.google.com/site/projectgoethe/Home/branko-miljkovic/pohvala-vatri-1 Branko Miljkovic, "Ode to the Fire", translated by Aleksandra Milanovic https://sites.google.com/site/projectgoethe/Home/miroslav-antic/najljubavnija-pesma Miroslav Antic, "The Greatest Love Poem", translator unknown https://sites.google.com/site/projectgoethe/Home/vasko-popa/the-rose-thieves Vasko Popa, "The Rose Thieves", translated by Anne Pennington https://sites.google.com/site/projectgoethe/Home/vasko-popa/na-kraju Vasko Popa, "No Final", translated by Charles Simic https://sites.google.com/site/projectgoethe/Home/vasko-popa/vrati-mi-moje-krpice Vasko Popa, "Give Me Back My Rags", translated by Charles Simic

And now, my translation followed by the Serbian original by Branko Miljkovic.

Photo on Flickr by anneheathen

Critique of the Metaphor

Two words touch as soon as they are said

And melt into unknown meaning

Which has nothing to do with either of them

Because there is only one word on the brain

And a poem is only written so

That that word wouldn’t have to be said

That’s how words teach each other

That’s how words invent each other

That’s how words lead each other astray

And a poem is a string of blinded words

But their love is more than obvious

They feed off your complacency

They get more beautiful, the more powerless you are

And when all your energy has drained off when you die

People say: damn, he wrote such great poetry

And no one is suspicious of the word you never said.

Kritika metafore

Dve reči tek da se kažu dodirnu se

I ispare u nepoznato značenje

Koje s njima nikakve veze nema

Jer u glavi postoji jedna jedina reč

A pesma se piše samo zato

Da ta reč ne bi morala da se kaže

Tako reči jedna drugu uče

Tako reči jedna drugu izmišljaju

Tako reči jedna drugu na zlo navode

I pesma je niz oslepljenih reči

Ali je ljubav njihova sasvim očigledna

One žive na račun tvoje komotnosti

Sve su lepše što si nemoćniji

A kad iscrpeš sve svoje snage kad umreš

Ljudi kažu: bogamu kakve je taj pesme pisao

I niko ne sumnja u reč koju nisi rekao.

GloPoWriMo Day 30