LJUBINKO JELIĆ

LJUBINKO JELIĆ

THE KEY OF LIGHT

One morning, all around me

there blazed with light countless

eyes and tracts in which

for a moment I saw all my unfinished

dreams. . . And I saw you, my Love,

approaching the dazing garden

and showing the key made of light

in your hand extended toward the door

of the room in which there irresistibly grew

the emptiness over my mouth, in vain

ready to celebrate in song

the world for a long time saturated

with illusory beauty.

One morning, my eyes

inside the all-seeing eyes, gained power

to perceive their inexpressible

property. . . And they expected

the grateful turning in the lock

of the key kept in the throat of a love

song, before it was broad daylight

and before the sight was filled up

with the new rays

in front of the other-worldly

threshold.

THE BIRTHPLACE ON THE TONGUE

A red-hot bird irresistibly

flies over the black horizon

reminding a wordless beholder

thet its primordial birthplace

is on the tongue in love with words

magnetized from within

by a drowsy breath. . . The over flight

would have more sense

if it did not carry under its wings

everything we used to long for

in vain, never daring to tell each other

in a loud voice. . . The red-hot bird,

the only true remainder of my

youth, scattered in questions

with no complete answer,

flies by turns high and low,

and with its phantasmagoric shadow

gradually screens tracts,

never entirely visible, outside

of the eyes always open

in the springs of drowsiness. . . For sure,

it will not and cannot stop

where our daylight is fed

on the known shine. . .

ON THE TRACK OF NEW POETICS

A multitude of options, but who knows

why a self-begetting wind

says confidingly to the grass, that

there is nothing more grateful

in the meadow, simply

not agreeing to reveal

different existence

in the first Spring poem.

The wind on the track of new poetics,

celebrates everything hopeful of survival,

in spite of disastrous meanings and of merciless

ripening. . . A multitude of options,

it says in the evening, and explains in the morning

to fluttering blades, though it seems

that at the end of the hot Summer

only one of them has undeniably

conceived under its novitial tongue

its own true seductiveness

in gloomy nouns, and something more

hardly translatable to lyric

swaths. . . The wind keeps

expounding the One who is

above all, expecting

some repose

promised before

the implacable mowing.

LJUBINKO JELIĆ

LJUBINKO JELIĆ was born in 1932 in the village of Šarani, close to Gornji Milanovac. He graduated from the Faculty of Economy in Belgrade. For some time he lived in Munich. He works in construction and design, and ocasionally publishing. So far he published: Letters to my love, Below the burning hammers, Wastefield, Sower’s gentleness, the Shine of the miraculous, Ravager before the door, The Magic ring, Above-Below, Closer to the glacier, Architect’s phonebook, Bitter seed, On the edge of the ash field, Building in, Tea for the neighbor, Around the dreamy nest, On another heaven, Angel in a greenhouse, Architect’s diary, Building and illusions, Graceful monophony, Collected poems in four books, Epistles of love. His works have been translated into German, Romanian, Italian, English, Macedonian, Russian and Check and can be found in several anthologies of Serbian poetry. He has been awarded and is a member of Serbian Literary Society and European Academy for Culture and Art. The awards he received include: Award of Serbian Literary Society for life’s work; “Ivo Andric” Academy’s International award for life’s work; Recognition of Cultural-educational community of Belgrade for exceptional contribution to the city of Belgrade; “Recognition of Morava” for total contribution to creativity in poetry and award of the Society of Playwrights for total contribution to the culture of Serbia, award in Aprilia (Italy) 2017. He lives and works in Belgrade.