• Dejan Matić: Sample Writing

Dejan Matić: Sample Writing

UMOR OD POEZIJE

Nisi izašla iz sobe.

Školjke.

Osmatračnice.

Ružno je vreme za šetnju.

Gimnastiku.

Jogu.

Nije pravi trenutak:

Da flertujemo.

Ugušile su nas velike reči.

Ono što olako nazivamo poezijom.

Slomio nas ritam.

Diktator.

Pritajili smo se.

Da prođe svetski dan poezije.

Bez stiha na jeziku. 

TIRED OF POETRY 

You didn’t get out of your room.

Your shell.

Your watchtower.

It’s a lousy weather for walking.

Gymnastic.

Yoga.

This is not the right time:

To Flert.

We choke on big words.

The rhythm broke us.

The dictator.

We lay low.

To let the World Poetry Day pass.

With no verses on our lips. 
 

SAMOME SEBI 

I voleti je dobro: jer ljubav je teška.

                                               Rilke 

Oduvek su ga privlačile svetice;

Potencijalne. Mističarke, u najavi.

Sastao se sa devicama, ludim

I mudrim. Analizirao san;

U manastiru.

Razgovarao sa prostitutkom, o tome.

Olako je pristupio studijama književnosti.

Nije mario za velike tajne, biblioteke.

Posmatrao je drvo života, u stihiji.

Pod određenim uglom. Za sebe.

Nije položio ispit iz romantizma:

Pao na motivu mrtve drage. 
 

TO MYSELF 

To love is good, too: love being difficult.

                              Rilke 

He’s always been drawn to saints;

Potential ones. Mystical women. Wannabes.

He’s encountered virgins, silly

And wise. He analyzed the dream;

In a convent.

He spoke to a prostitute about it.

He approached literature studies carelessly.

He didn’t give a damn about the grand secrets and libraries.

He observed the tree of life in a thunderstorm.

He didn’t pass the Romanticism exam:

He failed on the motif of the dead darling.  

Translation by Vesna Stamenković 

SLUTNJA BUDUĆEG 

Nestaće zidovi ove samačke sobe,

na kojima godinama beleži svoje želje,

planove, kao svakodnevni podsetnik,

i krenuće na putovanja, podstican povoljnim

vetrovima. Dah novog života opijaće zatrovana

čula, i on neće lako prepoznati ukus u ustima.

Sećanja će nestajati, kao rane strasti. 
 

PRESENTIMENT OF THE FUTURE 

The walls of this single man’s room will disappear.

On them he has been noting his wishes for years,

and plans, like everyday agenda.

And he will set off on journeys, moved by good

winds. The breath of new life will intoxicate his poisoned

senses, and he will not easily recognize the taste in his mouth.

Memories will disappear, like early passions.

TREĆI TRG 

Šta čekamo ovde na agori okupljeni?

                                                    Kavafi 

Slučajni susret mladića i devojke na ulici.

A tako malo vremena za njih u ovom gradu.

Zastanu na trenutak, u čudu.

Pogledaju se, dodirnu, osmehnu.

Onda mu ona govori o nekom gradiću 

na grčkoj obali, gde su vrtovi

poludeli od mirisa i boja, a ulice od svetlosti.

„Videla sam“, kaže,“sa prozora hotelske sobe,

kako dvoje mladih na trgu voze rolere;

– očigledno su par; a podnevno sunce im pali

tek preplanula lica, i skladno građena tela.“ 
 
 

THE THIRD SQUARE

                         What are we waiting for here, gathered on the agora?

Kavafis 

An occasional encounter of a young man and a girl on the street.

And there’s so little time for them in this city,

They stop for a moment, amazed.

They look at one another, touch, smile.

Then, she tells him of a small town

on the Greek coast, where gardens

have gone frantic with smells and colours, and streets with lights.

“I saw”, she says, “from the hotel room window,

two young people on roller blades;

– obviously a couple; and the afternoon sun burned their faces

only just tanned, and their well shaped bodies.”

UČEĆI GRAMATIKU 

Učeći gramatiku starogrčkog jezika,

utrnulog tela, u nepravilnom položaju;

dalek pospalim stanovnicima grada,

savršeno tuđ i starim Grcima i sebi,

u ove sitne sate, maštam o čitanju Homera,

u originalu. 

Reči koje ne shvatam potpuno, oblici

koje ne prepoznajem, uzimaju dah:

zapliću jezik kao poljubac u usta.

Ali taj strani, i dugo iščekivani zvuk

osvaja:

poput strasti kojima smo krenuli u susret;

dolazi kao početak i kraj;

Alfa i Omega. 

A kada Odisej, ovoga puta zauvek, ostavi

Itaku, i otplovi ka obalama sveta,

ustanem od stola, i legnem na krevet:

kao na mirnu površinu mora. 
 

WHILE LEARNING GRAMMAR 

While learning the grammar of the ancient Greek,

with pins and needles in my body, in an uncomfortable position,

distant to the sleepy dwellers of the city,

perfectly strange to the ancient Greeks as well as to myself,

in these early hours, I’m dreaming of reading Homer

in the original. 

The words that I don’t completely grasp, the forms

that I don’t recognize, are breathtaking;

they curl the tongue like a kiss in the mouth.

But that foreign, and long expected sound

conquers;

like a passion that we welcome;

it comes like beginning and the end;

like Alpha and Omega. 

And when Ulysses, and this time forever, leaves

Ithaca, and sales off towards the shores of the world,

I get up from the table, and lay on the bed:

like on a calm water surface.

Translated by Marija Panić

News