Some poems by Zoran M. Mandic from his collection Serbia in Deep Waters Instant To my Dule
Together we grew up I often dream of his loneliness Sometimes I call him in my dreams I write him letters I wait for his answer When I close my eyes his face is Right under the eyelids Whiter than white Luller then the sound of a stray in The time of growing up When I was only seemingly small In a large area In front of the wall behind which he disappeared He taught me how to watch Everlasting movement of transience Once we were together with it Waited for dawn The dawn breathed our memory It’s smile ended in The air
Among the trees of pruned pictures Dreams do not testify on hold To the rules of their lives Oblivion masters Maybe the secret is in the silence of poetry I Have chosen for his eternal home
Writing Table On the writing Table The board of the Non-matter Shelf without books The white photo of The white Wall In the hands of A writer The writer’s hand
Without Pencil We should ask ourselves for the Reason
Autumn Wind hastily throws trash Dead leaves turned into the mud Blurred view slides down Dilapidated facade Cloudy vault encourages insomnia In the picture reluctantly face of a poet Above the postponed keyboard of Computer Cigarette smoke bends Irregular circles In the sky illegible handwriting of Abandoned tracks from various History doubts A downcast breath Dissatisfied with breathing rhythm
Seemingly in deep water Autumn Hides
Fugitive He does not know where he is Barking of the chain of persecutor Humbly dirty hands into Pirate’s soup The invincible virus of greed In front of the face of a concerned God Breathes a small world Chief accountants seek and subtract all From dawn to dusk for The impossible track of The Fugitive With loud voices They can not hear themselves among concealers and swines Which always grunt Miserably Someone badly slandered man
Having dinner with the fugitive To greedy pirates God says concerned
Gumilyov A terrible story is that When they kill you When self-hanged you kneel beside a cesspits In the dark side of town, in a dark suit Even more terrifying is When still an unborn central committee proclaims you innocent (alive) when they translate, quote, advertise sale you The most frightening is shot in the back and that in the back of the neck so you can not see friend a reader great yesterday that today so little trials you and shoots from behind
by poem title A terrible story is that Through space when you are gone When you can not finish the poem Which was looking at the killer
(For this poem titled Gumilyov, that inspirational associated with the tragic fate of the great Russian poet Nikolai Gumiljov, Zoran M. Mandic in 1988 won Vukovi lastari, which he was formally awarded in Trsic in the maintenance of Vuk's Assembly.)
Translated by Danielle Trajkovic
Zoran M. Mandic was born in 1950, in Vladicin Han, Serbia. He is a poet, prose writer, essayist, literary and art critic, editor, writer, journalist and lawyer. Untill now he has published about 25 books and received fifteen major awards. He has been a jury member at twenty literary prizes and his work have been translated into several languages. Poetry, fiction, essays, literary and art criticism have so far been published in over 60 newspapers and magazines in the country and abroad. As a journalist, collaborates with numerous newspapers, as well as several radio and television centers, and his many social activities were concentrated only to culture and IT. Thus, eg. was a trustee of
the Apatin in SCTM (Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities). Zoran M. Mandic is a member of AICIL in Paris (European Association of Literary Critics), Serbian Writers Association, the Writers Association of Vojvodina, Serbian Association of Journalists and the International Organization of Journalists.