DANIELA ANDONOVSKA-TRAJKOVSKA

 

 

Domesticated Words

Inspired by “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

 

I was giving you the essential oils of the words

every morning

to keep you hydrated

but you wanted me to have you

in the bell jar of my glimpse

because you were afraid

of other people’s breathing

 

And then I thought

that you will kill all of my volcanoes

with which I am breathing into the century’s womb

as if they are my lungs

and I left you

so you could feel the pain

of the heated chlorophyll

 

I see your sky differently now

when I am finding myself out of myself

with a serpent under my tongue

a landscape with watery roses in my eyes

and a thorny flower on my lips

 

I am yours, my darling,

and I am finally coming home

with grey hair and wrinkled heart.

 

House Of Contrasts

 

When I open the front door to enter my home

through the back door my shadow goes out

and no one sees the flood in my working room

because of the blossomed orchids on my living room’s window

and no one can ever feel the scent of pine trees

that is coming from my back window

 

and no one, no one at all

can see the invisible resin of the past

laid on the coffee table where I serve

Greek coffee, Turkish delight and German chocolate 

and when I speak аloud in my sleeplessness

no one, no one at all can hear

how the day crumbles in me

and puts the pieces again all at once like X-rays do

that no one

will ever point a finger at my naked body

 

Walls

 

when I open the window on the north

and when the icicle looks at me

with a stoned water of the past

and when I let that sharp letter enter my home

the window on the west

invents new frames for the old images

that have been hanging silently

for so long on the stooped walls

and the window on the east starts to get up early

with dilated pupils full of dreams

when I open the window on the north

and when the icicle looks at me

with the old ages of sorrow

the window on the south

starts to tickle the ripened thoughts

that have been growing on the inner side of the wall

when I open the window on the north

and when I see the old pictures dressed up with broken light

and when the spring is blooming in my chest

and when I feel the sunbeam of you on my body

all four walls that have been confining my existence

fall down at once like they were made up of cardboard.

 

DANIELA ANDONOVSKA-TRAJKOVSKA

 

DANIELA ANDONOVSKA-TRAJKOVSKA (born February 3, 1979, Bitola, North Macedonia) is a poetess, scientist, editor, literary critic, doctor of pedagogy, university professor. She works at the Faculty of Education – Bitola, St. “Kliment Ohridski” University – Bitola, Republic of North Macedonia and teaches the following courses: Methodology of Teaching Language Arts, Creative Writing, Critical Literacy, Methodology of Teaching Early Reading and Writing, ect. She is co-founder of the University Literary Club “Denicija PFBT UKLO” as well as the Center for Literature, Art, Culture, Rhetoric and Language at the Faculty of Education – Bitola. She is a member of the Macedonian Writers’ Association, Macedonian Science Society – Bitola, Slavic Academy for Literature and Art in Varna – Bulgaria, Bitola Literary Circle, and she was president of the Macedonian Science Society Editorial Council (for two mandates). She is the editor in chief of the literary journal “Rast”/ “Growth” issued by the Bitola Literary Circle, and also - editor in chief of the International Journal “Contemporary Dialogues” (Macedonian Science Society), and editor of “Literary Elements” Journal (Perun Artis), several poetry and prose books. In addition to writing scientific articles which are published in many international scientific journals (over 100 articles), and university course books (“Critical Literacy”, “Educational Leadership”, “Educational Leadership Trainings”), she writes poetry, prose and literary critics. She has published two prose books: “Coffee, Tea and the Red Sky” (2019), “Deconstruction of the Emptiness”; one poetry book for children, one book of literary criticism, and 9 poetry books: “Word about the Word” (2014), “Poems for the Margins” (2015), “Black Dot” (2017), Footprints” (2017), “Three” (2019), “House of Contrasts” (2019), “Electronic Blood” (2019), “Math Poetry” (2020), and “Walking on an Aerial Line” (2021). Her book “Electronic Blood” is translated into Arabic language by Raed Anis Al-Jishi and published by Rawashen publishing house in United Arab Emirates in 2021 and in English by Cyberwit in 2021. She has won special mention at the Nosside World Poetry Prize (UNESCO, 2011), the award for the best unpublished poem at the Macedonia Writers’ Association Festival (2018), “Krste Chachanski” prize for prose (2019), National “Karamanov” Poetry Prize for poetry 2019, Macedonian Literary Avant-garde (2020), “Abduvali Qutbiddin” (third, 2020, Uzbekistan), Premio Mondiale "Tulliola- Renato Filippelli" in Italy (2021), International Award of Excellence "City of Galateo-Antonio De Ferraris" (Italy, Rome, 2021), the most important national award for poetry “Aco Shopov” (by Macedonian Writers’ Association in 2021 for the book “Math Poetry”) and Literary Circle for Literary Criticism Award in 2022. Her poetry was published in a number of anthologies, literary magazines and journals both at home and abroad, and her works are translated into more than 38 languages: English, Serbian, Slovenian, Croatian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Romanian, Polish, Chinese, Arabic, Turkish, Vietnamese, Uzbek, Bengali, German, Italian, French, Dutch, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Sicilian, Greek, Hindi, Japanese, Farsi, Icelandic, Russian, Filipino, Hebrew, Tamil, Bangla, Irish, Armenian, Indonesian, Malay, Catalan. She has translated many literary works from English, Serbian and Bulgarian language into Macedonian