Poems by Anne Marie Derèse

Translations by Judith Skillman and Jean-Marcel Gayraud


Je Te Hais!

Je te hais! mon amour
pour m’avoir guidée
dans le labyrinthe.
Pour m’avoir rendu
le chemin si facile
jusqu’au mur où les femmes
sont lapidées.
 

I Hate You!

I hate you! my love
for having guided me
into the labyrinth.
For having given me
the pathway so easily
just up to the wall where the women
are stoned.


Le Condor

Le condor, ce Prince
de la dernière heure,
me regarde.

Il semble me dire,
je t’aimerai jusqu’au
squelette.

Je lui crie,
je suis vivante!
vivante!
Le condor me regarde,
il attend.


The Condor

The condor, this prince
of the last hour,
looks at me.

He seems to say to me,
I will love you until you become a
skeleton.

I scream at him,
I am alive!
Alive!
The condor looks at me,
he waits.
 


Des Jardins Suspendus

Je veux mettre sous mes paupières,
des jardins suspendus,
des contes à dormir debout.

Je veux garder une minute de silence
pour tes plaines de sable.

Tes lèvres chercheront la réponse
dans les odeurs de l’été,
dans la moiteur des vents du sud.
Tes mains auront traversé des pays,
elles seront étranges à respirer.

 
The Hanging Gardens

I want to put them beneath my eyes,
these hanging gardens,
their stories have the charm of sleep.

I want to keep a minute of silence
for your flat lands of sand.

Your lips would have found the answer
in the scents of summer,
in the dampness of the south wind.
Your hands would have gone through some countries,
they would be strangers to breathing.

 

Jovica Tasevski–Eternijan: Four Poems

ВОЗНЕСЕНИЕ

Огнените крилја
што ниту праг имаат
ниту залез

Галежно навраќаат
врз нашите бледи образи

Требејќи го вжежено
мразот што прилегнал
во тенките жили

Безобѕирно и со сочни потези
ги гонат трагите на шеметот

Искревајќи го кон небесата
горкиот и стежнат
густеж

 
Ascension

Fire wings
have no threshold
no sunset

Caresses turn
upon our pale cheeks

Their glow subtracts
ice by heat
in thin wires

Wanton and juicy strokes
pursue the path of dizziness

Raising to the heavens
a bitter and heavy
thickness


ВСУШНОСТ

Тешки зборови
слетуваат врз трошните плеќи,
се таложат без престан

Лесно се преобразуваат
во златен самар
Вовед се во небесни места:

Штом темната острица
мине низ оваа насушност,
лудиот пелин ќе згине

Ќе згние
спроти крилјата
далдисани

 
Actually

Tough words
land on crumbling shoulders,
pile up endlessly.

They easily transform
into a golden saddle,
to introduce the heavenly places.

Once the dark blade
passes through this nothingness,
the mad wormwood will be gone.

It will rot
across from the wings,
bottommost to top.
 


ВИДЕНИЕ

Венчаа
раскрилени порти
мислата да си ја разлистам.

Видов
вистинит
Мрачен Миг.

Веројатно затоа повторно паднав
во Лавиринт.
Минотаурот демне...

 

Vision

They married
the widespread, winged gates
to adorn my thoughts.

I saw
the true
dark moment.

Probably because I fell again
into this labyrinth,
the Minotaur looms…


Jovica Tasevski - Eternijan (born 25th July 1976, Skopje) is a renowned Macedonian poet, essayist and literary critic. He graduated from the Comparative Literature Department, Faculty of Philology "Blaže Koneski" in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. Works in National and University Library "St. Clement of Ohrid" - Skopje. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Macedonian literary magazine Stremež and a consultant for Macedonian poetry of the director of The Other Voices International Project, an anthology of world poetry, included in the World Poetry Directory of UNESCO.
     Published books include: "Нешто се слуша" (Something Can Be Heard, poetry, 1995), "Визии. Глагол"  (Visions. Verb, poetry, 1997), "Веда" (Lightning, poetry, 1998), "Постојното, плимата" (The Constant, the Tide, literary criticism, essays and studies, 2000), "Клатно" (Pendulum, poetry, 2001), "Небесни стражи" (Heavenly Guards, poetry, 2004), "Посоки и огледи" (Directions and Reflections, literary criticism, essays and studies, 2006), "Синтакса на светлината" (The Syntax of the Light, selected poems, volume 91 in capital project "Macedonian Literature", 2008).
     With Maja Apostoloska he edited an anthology of Macedonian poetry with religious, biblical and apocryphal motifs, published as a special issue of Stremež. Also he compled an anthology of youth Macedonian poetry, Unidentified Celestial Bosom (2001).
     He won The Enchanting Poet Award for excellent contribution in poetry writing, given by The Enchanting Verses International poetry journal.  His poetry have appeared in many literary magazines and is represented in a number of anthologies.  Eternijan has been translated into several languages.
     He is a member of the Macedonian Writers' Association, The Poetry Society and of the World Poets Society. He worked as a Director and Editor-in-Chief in Publishing House "Makavej" (2000) and as a Officer in Department for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia (2001).