Fate has humbled you—
only the sky can run over you without sinking.
You seek reasons with polite softness
and then arrange them like dominoes.
Somebody has cut away the wrath like a devil’s claw—
your finger stings, but less and less; it shall pass.

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

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Roza Boyanova was born in the village of Rabrovo. She holds a degree in Bulgarian philology from Konstantin Preslavski University in Shumen and has worked as a newspaper correspondent and a lecturer in children’s literature at several universities. In 1993, Roza founded Mythical Birds, a creative writing organization for children and youth in Bourgas. Since then, she has compiled and edited over 40 books of creative works by the group’s members. Roza is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Drafts of the Milky Way, published in 2011. She is the recipient of the 2007 Ivan Peichev National Poetry Award in Bulgaria.