With the big beds she understands
when love ends.
She wakes up and sees—
a back at the other end of the bed.
That’s why she prefers
for them to sleep in a small bed,
covered only with a sheet.

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

Ivanka Mogilska was born on June 5th, 1981 in Plovdiv. She is the author of two books of poetry. Her first, DNA, won the Southern Spring Award for the best debut book. With her second book, a novel entitled Places to Get Lost In, she participated in the convention of European first-time novelists at the International Book Festival in Budapest in 2008. In 2011, she published her latest poetry book, Otherwise Said. Ivanka works as a copywriter and translator. She currently lives and works in Sofia.