Poslednja fotografija sa ocem
Nisam sačuvao
Poslednju fotografiju sa ocem.
Sedeli smo u očevom automobilu,
I ja sam ćutao,
On je govorio teško dišući,
U borbi za vazduh.
Od fotografije je ostala
Samo traka svetla,
Iako mi je ona važnija
Od sačuvanih fotografija.
Ali se sećam
Da sam gledao pravo napred,
Širom otvorenih očiju,
Kao da sam video
Ono što dolazi.
Ono što je već došlo
I smestilo se između nas,
U svetložutom očevom automobilu.
Last Photograph with Father
I have not kept
The last photograph with my father.
We were sitting in my father’s car,
And I was silent,
He was talking and breathing heavily,
Struggling for air.
What is left of the photograph
Is just a strip of light,
Although it is more important to me
Than the preserved photographs.
But I remember
That I was looking right ahead,
With my eyes wide open,
As if I could see
What was coming.
What had already come
And placed itself between us,
In my father’s light yellow car.
Translated: Dragan Purešić
Gojko Božović
Poslednja fotografija sa ocem (Last Photograph with Father)
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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