• Ana Ristović in translation

Ana Ristović in translation

ELUL

In the holy land, in the city of David,
in the middle of the Elul month
two guardians are considering what to do
with the old lady who took a nap by the monument
hiding the year and inscription with her shoulder.

Something she was muttering in her sleep.
One hand is kept tightened in the other,
carefully, like a bomb.
On her head pulled back, mouth half opened
just like each moment a shower of water will flow
and build a fountain
in the middle of the dead royal city.

Those tourists connected with God
are searching for her shadow and see
how the monuments are inoculated one on another:

an old woman's body, with the breathing
inside her belly is polishing the stone which is pulling it
toward the stones
and from Pesach to Pesach, on excavations
keeps longer and longer.

Two guardians don't know what to do with the old woman.
One of them is driving carefully away
little flies from her face.
The other without knowing is giving her the shadowed places
with his large body, like a shield from a strong sun.

Yehuda* said it well:
"The dream exists there where the stones are."

*Yehuda Amichai

ELUL

U svetoj zemlji, u Davidovom gradu
usred meseca Elula
dva čuvara razmišljaju šta da čine
sa staricom koja je zadremala na spomeniku
leđima sakrivši godine i natpis.

Ponešto i promrmlja u snu.
Jednu ruku drži skupljenu u drugoj
brižljivo, kao bombu.
Na zabačenoj glavi, usta poluotvorena
kao da će svaki čas pustiti mlaz vode
i podići fontanu
sred mrtvog kraljevskog grada.

Turisti koji poznaju Boga
traže njenu senku i vide
kako se kaleme spomenici jedan na drugi:

staro žensko telo, disanjem
u trbuhu glača kamen koji ga vuče
ka kamenju
i od Pesaha do Pesaha, na iskopinama
zadržava sve duže.

Dva čuvara ne znaju šta bi sa njom.
Jedan joj brižljivo, rukom
rasteruje mušice sa lica.
Drugi i ne zna da joj krupnim telom
pruža senku kao štit od prejakog sunca.

Dobro kaže Jehuda:
,,San postoji tamo gde ima kamenja.“

ON THE NATURE OF THINGS

The snail is the body
of God's doubt
in his own power.

Because God did create the word first
and then, after a few days
the Earth.

And then, leant his ear beside the peat cortex
to hear – if anything moves underneath
if it reveals any sound from itself to
this nested life.

And then, because he has doubted himself
his ear got petrified
in the fragile spiral of the snail's house
forever tightened
to a sad membrane of the Earth
and the silence of the movement
as a pledge of disbelief
in the first initiated sound.

And then, accepting misunderstandings
became the urge together
with accepting of faith:
His eye is all mighty
but each here spoken word
is traveling to long till it reaches
abyss of ear cavity
and there, between hammer, anvil and stirrup
only local silences are at war.

Everlasting dilemma: can he hear
the voices of mortals...
The truth remains somewhere
on the half way of the crucified sky:

Between his healed wound –
dark canal on which walls only
centuries are glued like wax and dust
and all snails on the Earth
which are only multiplied model
of his long ago cut ear.

Between
His first
and our last doubt.

O PRIRODI STVARI

Puž je telo
Božje sumnje
u sopstvenu moć.

Jer Bog je najpre stvorio reč
i onda, posle par dana
i Zemlju.

I onda, prislonio uho uz tresentu koru
da čuje – miče li se šta pod njom
i pušta li glasa od sebe
umešeni život.

I onda, jer je posumnjao u sebe
okamenilo mu se uho
u krtu spiralu pužjeg doma
zauvek vezano
za tužnu opnu zemlje
i tišinu pokreta
kao zalog nepoverenja
u prvi začeti zvuk.

I onda, prihvatanje nesporazuma
postade nužnost
uz prihvatanje vere:
svevideće je Njegovo oko
ali svaka ovde izgovorena reč
suviše dugo putuje do bezdane
ušne šupljine
u kojoj između čekića, nakovnja i uzengije
samo lokalne tišine vode ratove.

Dilema večna: može li čuti
glasove smrtnih....
Istina ostaje negde
na polovini razapetog neba:

Između njegove zaceljene rane –
tamnog kanala za čije zidove
lepe se vekovi kao vosak i prašina

i svih puževa na zemlji
koji su samo umnoženi model
njegovog davno odsečenog uha.

Između
Njegove prve
i naše poslednje sumnje.

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