One Poem by Igor Marković - Translated by Petar Penda from Serbian to English

 

VIGIL

 

The earth sank into a netherworld dusk 
It shuddered 
And turned, haunted by solitude 
Its words rang against the ramparts 
with a howl of rusted hands 
from the rooftops of entombed oaks 
when it gave voice 
Here, the age of heroism reigns no more!! 
Stray passersby dream within me 
Ignorant wardens of prehistory 
Observers of bone monuments 
And rearrangers of long-dead horrors 
Here we are alone within transience 

 

I will open to you my nape 
when you forget the craft of breathing 
And the meaning of the eternal shifting of the future 
For time blindly believes in space 
While death repays a debt to my throat 
for keeping memories 
 

by forgetting the Past

 

 

БДЕЊЕ 

 

Земља утону у загробни сумрак 
Протресе се 
И осврну уклета од самоће 
Одјекнуше од зидина њене речи 
хуком зарђалих руку 
са кровова укопаних храстова 
кaд изусти 
Овде више не царује доба херојства!! 
у мени сањају случајни пролазници 
неуки клисари пра-историје 
посматрачи монумената од костију 
И преслагачи минулог згражавања 
Овде смо сами у пролазности 
Отворићу и Вама свој потиљак 
када заборавите занат дисања 
И значај вечитог претакања будућности 
Јер време слепо простору верује 
Док смрт мом грлу враћа дуг 
за чување успомена 
заборавом од Прошлости

Previously Published in Fevers of the Mind 

 

  

 

 

Igor Marković was born in 1988 in Leskovac, Serbia. He is a poet and columnist. From 2005 to 2012, he was one of the lead editors of the radio show "Mic Check", dedicated to culture and urban music. He is the author of the audio poetry collection When Words Come Alive, created for people with visual impairments and published in 2023. His acclaimed poetry collection The Right to Replication was published in 2024. 

 

 

 

 

Petar Penda is a literary scholar, translator, critic, and poet who teaches English literature at the University of Banja Luka. He holds a PhD in English and American Modernism, with expertise in Shakespeare, literary modernism, and contemporary Anglo-American poetry. He has authored and edited numerous scholarly works, including books on T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf and D. H. Lawrence, and has translated over a dozen literary works between English and Serbian. His own poetry and translations have been widely published in both regional and international literary journals.  He is the author of the novel titled Oak Tree published in Montenegro and Serbia.