Posts Tagged: Blaga Dimitrova

A call carved on a prison wall

Ars poetica

всяко свое стихотворение
ти създавай като последно.
В този век. наситен със стронций,
зареден с тероризъм,
литнал с ултразвукова скорост,
все по внезапно идва смъртта.
Всяка своя дума изпращай
както сетно писмо пред разстрел,
врязан зов в зида на затвор.
Нямаш право ти на лъжа,
даже на малка игра красива.
Няма просто време да имаш
свойта грешка сам да изправиш.
Лаконично и безпощадно
всяко свое стихотворение
с кръв написвай като прощално.
Блага Николова Димитрова
“Обратно време: стихове”, Български писател, 1966

Ars poetica

Write each of your poems
as if it were your last.
In this century, saturated with strontium,
charged with terrorism,
flying with supersonic speed,
death comes with terrifying suddenness.
Send each of your words
like a last letter before execution,
a call carved on a prison wall.
You have no right to lie,
no right to play pretty little games.
You simply won’t have time
to correct your mistakes.
Write each of your poems,
tersely, mercilessly,
with blood—as if it were your last.
–Blaga Dimitrova (translated by Ludmilla G. Popova-Wightman)

National Poetry day 2019

If you want to read one or more of their poems, click on their name in the tag list below

Touch by Blaga Dimitrova

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Touch

Everything is divided up with boundary line,
which is a contact to something else.

the stem is imprisoned in bark –
Through it, feels both wind and rain.

The fish is armoured with scales –
through them it senses the sound of waves.

The sea is clamped by shores –
through them it touches the thirsty land.

I am nailed within a woman’s skin –
through it I know caress and wound.

We contact the world
only through our boundaries.

And in becoming more boundless,
we will become more lonely.

(1988)
Blaga Dimitrova