Iznad vode
Osećao sam da tonemo.
Voda je prodirala u temelje broda,
Voda, masna, crna voda,
Teška kao zemlja,
A mi smo napustili palubu
U nerazrešenoj svađi
I sišli u donji svet,
Među vodu i mulj,
Zamišljajući granice potpalublja
Kao granice jednog okončanog sveta.
I niko nije hteo da podigne pogled,
Kako bi zadržao glavu iznad vode
I sagledao obrise ostrva,
Obećanje dalekog kopna.
Osećao sam da tonemo.
Nešto jače od vode zazivalo nas je u vodu.
Nešto staro kao voda.
Above water
I felt we were sinking.
Water penetrated ship's foundations,
Water, oily, black water,
Heavy as the earth itself,
While we were leaving the deck
In unresolved dispute
Descending into the underworld,
Through water and mud,
Imagining the limits of the lower deck
As the limits of a terminated world.
And nobody would look up
To keep head over water
And examine the contours of the island,
Promise of a distant land.
I felt we were sinking
Something more powerful than water lured us into water.
Something as old as water.
Translated: Radmila Nastić
Gojko Božović
Iznad vode (Above water)
My Lights
About Gojko Božović
Gojko Božović (1972), poet, essayist, literary critic, editor and publisher.
Books of poetry: Underground Cinema (1991), Soul of the Beast (1993), Poems of Things (1996), Archipelago (2002), Elements (2006), Nearby Deities (2012), Map (2017), Silent Beast at Noon (selected poems and chronicles, 2019).
Book of essays: Poetry in Time: On the Serbian Poetry of the Second Half of the 20th Century (2000), Place We Love: On the Contemporary Serbian Poetry (2009), Literature and Days (2018), Kingdom without Borders: On the Serbian Poetry of the 20th and 21th Century (2019), Playthings of Destiny: Essays on Serbian literature: XIX-XXI century (2020).
Anthologies: An Anthology of Recent Serbian Poetry: The Nineties, The 20th Century (2005), Place We Love. An Anthology of Contemporary Serbian Poetry 1945-2006. (2006, 2011; in English), The World around Us. An Anthology of Contemporary Serbian Stories (2009).
The essays treat Serbian literature of the 20th century and poetic issues of the contemporary literature.
His poems and essays are translated to English, French, Russian, Italian, German, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Dutch, Danish, Slovenian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Slovak, Macedonian, Greek.
Books of selected poems by Gojko Božović have been published in Russia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Croatia.
He received the awards „Dušan Matić“, „Brana Cvetković“, „Djura Jakšić“, „Branko Ćopić“, „Europa Giovani International Poetry Prize“ (Italy), „Petar Kočić“ and „Gračanica Charter“ for poetry.
He received „Borislav Pekić Fund Award“ for essays.
He is founder and Editor-in-Chief Arhipelag Publishing (Belgrade, 2007) and Belgrade Festival of European Literature (Belgrade, 2012).
Vice President of Serbian PEN Center.
He lives in Belgrade (Serbia).
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