Poem
Dane Zajc
Poetry Burns
Fire reads poems.Fire assigns punctuation.
Fast fire with charred eyes
flips pages with flaming fingers.
Who will read verses,
etched in embers.
Burned out words. Decomposed syllables.
Distorted letters.
An impaled head
writes verses under closed eyelids.
Sings us a black poem
inaudibly from the slit throat.
Fair-haired poems burn with fire in their hair.
Nightingales burn above the nightingale city
with singed wings, with the burned out
warble in their beaks.
Roses burn in the walled gardens.
Brothels burn, the minaret rods break.
Churches burn.
In the fire a charred question,
what is a poem.
The faces of clocks burn,
set ablaze all at once.
The time past, the future time
dart from the flames of the present time.
On the question what is death,
blood drips
from the fatal wound of the just born.
© Translation: 2000, Dane Zajc, Sonja Kravanja
From: Scorpions
From: Scorpions
Gori poezija
Gori poezija
Ogenj prebira pesmi.Ogenj postavlja loèila.
Hitri ogenj z zoglenelimi oèmi
lista liste z zubljastimi prsti.
Kdo bo bral verze,
zapisane v zerjavici.
Pregorele besede. Razpadle zloge.
Zverizene èrke.
Na kol nataknjena glava
pesni pod zapitimi vekami.
Èrno pesem poje glava,
jo poje neslišno iz odsekanega grla.
Gorijo svetlolase pesmi z ognjem v laseh.
Gorijo slavci nad mestom slavcev
z ozganimi krili, s pregorelim
gostolenjem v kljunu.
Gorijo vrtnice v obzidanih vrtovih.
Gorijo beznice, palice minaretov se lomijo.
Cerkve gorijo.
V ognju je zoglenelo vprašanje,
kaj je pesem.
Gorijo obrazi ur,
vsi naenkrat zazgani.
Èas pretekli, èas prihodnji
frlita iz plamenov èasa sedanjega.
Na vprašanje, kaj je smrt,
kaplja kri
iz smrtne rane pravkar rojenega.
© 1998, Dane Zajc
From: Dol dol
Publisher: Nova revija,
From: Dol dol
Publisher: Nova revija,
Poems
Poems of Dane Zajc
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Poetry Burns
Fire reads poems.Fire assigns punctuation.
Fast fire with charred eyes
flips pages with flaming fingers.
Who will read verses,
etched in embers.
Burned out words. Decomposed syllables.
Distorted letters.
An impaled head
writes verses under closed eyelids.
Sings us a black poem
inaudibly from the slit throat.
Fair-haired poems burn with fire in their hair.
Nightingales burn above the nightingale city
with singed wings, with the burned out
warble in their beaks.
Roses burn in the walled gardens.
Brothels burn, the minaret rods break.
Churches burn.
In the fire a charred question,
what is a poem.
The faces of clocks burn,
set ablaze all at once.
The time past, the future time
dart from the flames of the present time.
On the question what is death,
blood drips
from the fatal wound of the just born.
© 2000, Dane Zajc, Sonja Kravanja
From: Scorpions
From: Scorpions
Poetry Burns
Fire reads poems.Fire assigns punctuation.
Fast fire with charred eyes
flips pages with flaming fingers.
Who will read verses,
etched in embers.
Burned out words. Decomposed syllables.
Distorted letters.
An impaled head
writes verses under closed eyelids.
Sings us a black poem
inaudibly from the slit throat.
Fair-haired poems burn with fire in their hair.
Nightingales burn above the nightingale city
with singed wings, with the burned out
warble in their beaks.
Roses burn in the walled gardens.
Brothels burn, the minaret rods break.
Churches burn.
In the fire a charred question,
what is a poem.
The faces of clocks burn,
set ablaze all at once.
The time past, the future time
dart from the flames of the present time.
On the question what is death,
blood drips
from the fatal wound of the just born.
© 2000, Dane Zajc, Sonja Kravanja
From: Scorpions
From: Scorpions
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