Contempo- rary Slovenian poetry 2 - Ljudmila
Contempo- rary Slovenian poetry 2 - Ljudmila
Contempo- rary Slovenian poetry 2 - Ljudmila
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Hatchet in a Knot<br />
Father, it is time for us to meet fully awake.<br />
You, entirely of memories and ashes. I …<br />
You will recognize me easily.<br />
I bear your eyes, your chin, your destiny<br />
written in my skin.<br />
Father, it is time for us to admit the presence of a hatchet,<br />
driven into a knot.<br />
I’m not asking you for a miracle.<br />
I’m not asking you to tug on the blade.<br />
I agree to the fact<br />
that our hearth will be forever cold.<br />
I am asking you simply to admit:<br />
we did not obey the laws of growth.<br />
And I accept the excuse:<br />
it was cold,<br />
which is why the handle shivered in our grip.<br />
Father, that is all I ask for.<br />
I know you have always said<br />
that birds are merely the trees’ visitors.<br />
That the wind sifts the leaves only for itself.<br />
But I cannot be otherwise.<br />
27<br />
How can I throw my slender youth<br />
into the fire of memory,<br />
if unacknowledged steel is lurking in it?<br />
Let us admit its presence, Father.<br />
So death will be easier for you<br />
and life less of a burden for me.<br />
Fužine, 20 August 1998<br />
The Squares of Fužine<br />
are oases of silence, oases of peace,<br />
as the night pales in the east.<br />
The squares of Fužine—pale flowers<br />
under the first light of dawn.<br />
The squares of Fužine—solitary paths<br />
of early workers and late-night lovers.<br />
The squares of Fužine—the rush of leaving<br />
and the slow, maybe secret, arrival.
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