On a mark
of silence:

1.

A butterfly counted
my knuckles.
Declared the white
unnecessary.

2.

The wind recounted
to a lake
the color of my eyes.
The red—it said—is a little much.

3.

A tree
hollowed by thunder
painted my mistrust in green.
The bark—it whispered—is not just a cover.

My silence
was not.

-Valentin Dishev,
translated from the Bulgarian
by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer,
The Season of Delicate Hunger:
Anthology of Contemporary Bulgarian Poetry
(Accents Publishing)

Valentin Dishev was born on May 7th, 1962 in Blagoevgrad. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia. He is a publisher and serves as editor-in-chief of Ars, an independent press for Bulgarian literature, as well as editor-in-chief of the online journals Crossroads and DICTUM. He is the creator and curator of the ArsMedia National Literary Festival. Valentin is the author of several poetry and prose books, most recentlyMarguerite and Other Registers (2013). For over 10 years he has hosted literary radio programs on Bulgarian National Radio (Radio Blagoevgrad).