In an Olympic year
I broke at least
seven personal bests:
1. Meeting with a mama bear:
my bicycle in a flash turned into
a racing motorcycle.
2. Meeting with a snake:
jumping as high as the first
cumulonimbus in sight.
3. Meeting with a liar:
taking flight to the farthest
hidden truth.
4. A race with time:
chasing after thirty
final deadlines
5. Fighting yourself:
five knockouts of my ego
in the first round.
6. Meeting with a baby:
a sprinting dive to
the real me.
7. Meeting with you:
a heart-rate that no living soul
can ever measure!
(Translated from Macedonian by Milan Damjanoski)
Vladimir Martinovski
PERSONAL BESTS
About Vladimir Martinovski
Vladimir Martinovski (b. 1974) is a poet, short story writer, essayist, literary critic, translator and musician. He teaches Comparative Literature at Sts Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje. Former president of the Association of Comparative Literature of Macedonia, former vice-president of the Macedonian PEN Centre, he has won a number of literary awards and his poetry has been translated into English, French, Italian, Spanish, Albanian, Turkish, Bulgarian, Greek, German, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian, Slovakian and Czech.