JOVANKA STOJČINOVIĆ NIKOLIĆ

JOVANKA STOJČINOVIĆ NIKOLIĆ

THE PUBLIC NOTICE

I look for provisional accommodation

To find a safe shelter for my words

To bring the written poems back under the roof

To have an unfamiliar neighbour

And my own bench in the Park

I buy a little river

Convenient for moving in

Where in each water-mill

I can meet my own millstone

I demand the lost Love Gold Picture Postcards

And everything left behind memories

The angle between the commotions of Doboj and a wolf-dog is demanded

There remained my footsteps

Clock tickings Rising waters Blazing fires

Promises of speech and deaths of moonshine

Verses scattered at literary evenings

There my years weep and shadows grow

I swap the head under a lifted axe

For the glitter of ist cutting edge

I change the directions of the clock hands

They intensify the race above History

For days on end I am Looking Buying

Demanding Swapping

Unhugging Dawning

Then I sit down with my face buried in hands

Taking a break to weigh out the words

To write the Public Notice once more

‚

THE WEIGHING OF WORDS

I have called off going to Library

It is a market day

Today I am going to buy and sell

I do not deny the delight of bargaining

Here a word can be pronounced for countless times

The weighing of words comes in the end

Everybody has their own counters made of dreams

Buying and selling keep going on

A button from a pair of old trousers

A pillow under the head for big and small money

A Snake's slough Deer's horn

A pocket watch and a hole on the pocket

A phone number Dust under a broom

Expensive and cheap cigarettes

Old umbrellas Knives from the chest

A mote in the eye Shadow before the feet

Light below the Lighthouse is bought

A Hill in the Kingdom Horses and horsemen

The Road under the footsteps on guard

Mists from the years nineteen ninety two and three

Everything is for sale

Only life has no value

TRANSLATE BY LAZAR  MACURA

Copyright ©

JOVANKA STOJČINOVIĆ NIKOLIĆ

JOVANKA STOJČINOVIĆ NIKOLIĆ was born in 1952 in Ritesic near Doboj (Bosnia and iH). Until 1998 she worked in high school in Doboj, as a teacher. From 1998 to 2010. she was the director of the Center for Culture and Education in Doboj. Now she works in the municipality of Doboj as a counselor for education, science and culture in the office of the mayor. She is the founder and director of more than a decade and selector of "Theatre Fest" in Doboj. She published 15 books of poetry and included in several anthologies in Serbia, Republic Serbska, Russia and Romania. She won awards in Serbia and Republic Serbska. Now she is the President of Writers' Association of Republic Serbska.