VALENTINA NOVKOVIĆ

 

 

Heart

 

At birth,

each of us receives

an invisible road map

that is guided by the heart.

 

That's why

we often make inexplicable decisions,

often go to the dark side of the street,

turn into dead ends,

run towards those distances

where our heart feels at peace.

 

That is why we rather choose

what is unattainable

than what is in front of us,

that is why we suffer

writing the most beautiful verses.

 

If someone would give us

ready-made solutions for our whole life,

no matter how ideal it is for us,

our heart would hide

in the distant corridors of sorrow

 and we would never hear its beat again,

however long we lived.

 

A Wolf And A Shepherd

 

Is fate just a ruse,

an excuse for our fears

to do as we please?

 

When we don't have the strength

to make the right decisions,

we often say: it's fate.

And let it sail at the will of the winds.

 

Because, it is difficult to look up

and face the circumstances.

Become both a wolf and a shepherd,

become both a snake and a dove

in this life that seeks both

heroes and those who know

how to admit weakness.

 

VALENTINA NOVKOVIĆ

 

VALENTINA NOVKOVIĆ (Serbia), graduate philologist, poet, prose writer, literary translator. Editor in a publishing house. Published four book of poems (Timeless 2014, Drop by drop 2018, Riddles of Tenderness, 2020, Poems to the Heaven, 2022, which won the first prize at the Fifth Drina Literary Meeting) and one prose book (Two hours from reality, 2020), Winner of many awards for poetry and prose as well as for translations. The book of stories by the famous writer and translator Rahim Karimov, "Stories for youbg people" Alma, 2019, which she translated into Serbian, received the award for the best translated prose book in 2019 by Literary Translators. Her verses have been translated into 16 world languages, and the book Odgonetke nežnosti was translated into Romanian in 2022 (Leo Butnaru translator, Timpul publisher.) She has translated individual stories and poems of more than 300 authors into Serbian, interviewed all important creators around the world and interviews were published in more widely read newspapers or magazines for culture and art. Member of the Association of Writers of Serbia and Kazakhstan, the Serbian Literary Association, and many associations in the world. Editor and host of the forum "Literary Conversations".