MILICA YEFTIMIJEVĆ LILIĆ

 

 

Ulysses' Confession

 

When I set eyes on you,

It was the first rainy day

That I experienced as a sunny one.

After that on many rainy days

That life used to bring

(Then I could not know

That it was the moment for a dream)

I returned that rainy day,

Absorbing the Sun's shine from your face

In order to be able to proceed.

 

Aware that I could have you

Only in that moment of a short living dream

(Like a far-away star that is remembered)

I did not dare to extend my arms,

To utter anything

Fearing my presumptuous wish.

 

Later on, all suppressed words

Suffocated in my throat,

Their hush simply killed me

While you were more and more remote,

And I missed more and more

The Sun's shine from your face

And never more in my life

There flashed generous rains

So brilliantly and uniquely.

 

It Is Sunday

 

The unanimous performance of birds and cicadas

Overshadows sirens, the noise of a metropolis.

I attend it from an empty park.

It is not hampered by the absence of audience or applause.

The singing is so sincere.

 

I detect that the celestial moment

Of the unexpected concert

In one hundred birds' voices

Can heal millions of people.

All those who have not bowed their heads

Or surrendered to hopelessness

Who are not oppressed by hunger

Or humiliated,

Accused before themselves

For the wrong steps or choices,

Who are not forced to kneel publicly

In order to touch the ruler's feet

Like all slaves.

 

Free breathing is taught here,

Singing on free topics,

Flying high.

 

Everything may wait,

Terms of divorces,

Lawsuits, retaliations.

 

It is Sunday morning.

The liturgical sound of birds' prayer

Is refreshing.

Children are on their mothers' laps.

Fathers are turning the pages of dailies.

The conversation of old women coming

Through open windows is quiet

And without everyday tensions.

 

Nobody is weeping,

Running or swearing.

 

It is Sunday.

 

Translated From The Serbian By Lazar Macura       

 

MILICA YEFTIMIJEVIĆ LILIĆ

 

 

MILICA YEFTIMIJEVIĆ LILIĆ: (Serbia) She is an academician of the Slavic Academy in Varna and honorary doctor of literature. She graduated at the Faculty of Philosophy in Prishtina, and won a master's degree in philological sciences at the University of Belgrade. She was a professor at the University of Prishtina, and editor on Belgrade TV. She has published the following collections of poems, stories and essays… in total 36 books. She is represented in many anthologies and has many literary awards of national importance as international...Her works translated into Russian, English, Italian, German, French, Hungarian, Macedonian, Turkish, Swedish, Polish and Arabic....more than 31 languages of world. She was vice President of the Association of writers of Serbia Lives in Belgrade.

 

Translated From The Serbian By Lazar Macura