Without a declared competition
the winner is proclaimed.
Production quality is immaterial,
jury competency is irrelevant:
the award for best supporting role
always goes to death.
Someone else’s, of course.
–Marin Bodakov,
translated from the Bulgarian
by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer
The Season of Delicate Hunger:
Anthology of Contemporary Bulgarian Poetry
(Accents Publishing)
She closes the newspaper and says:
did you read, in Iowa
it hailed—chunks
the size of a golf ball.
That, I say, is because
they go overboard with golf there,
they’ve lost many balls
which are now coming back,
He returns the balls,
you understand, that jokester.
But she doesn’t laugh,
turns around and says horrified:
He always hits the mark.
–Georgi Gospodinov,
She has been in the sea and it has been in her.
She has conceived in the relative peace of the bottom
with crustaceans, greenish-blue seaweed,
lived with the great power of symbiosis.
Perhaps she’s been at some ancient market
with an expectation of travel,
filled with olive oil or wine, touched by strong hands,
but the sea has hidden her in its basement.
Recently she saw the white world and inhaled air at length.
Now she grieves like an abstract symbol,
makes each empty corner more bearable.
We both war against time.
Protect ourselves from the blinding shield of the sun.
–Bina Kals,
When a poor man begs
on the corner—
it’s a disgrace.
When a rich company
begs on the phone—
it’s a marketing strategy.
If the poor man sends someone
to kill a bad neighbor—
it’s a crime.
If the president sends his troops
to kill a bad neighbor—
it’s liberation.
The rich man can buy a senator.
The poor man can
buy the rich man’s newspaper
and read
about the senator.
Yes, the rich kid goes to law school.
Yes, the poor kid
sells drugs on the corner.
And there is justice for all!
. Washington 2006
-Vladimir Levchev,
translated from the Bulgarian
by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer
The Season of Delicate Hunger:
Anthology of Contemporary Bulgarian Poetry
(Accents Publishing)
For the first time she saw the world like this
not a world but a map
not a map but a slit stomach
draining fecal waters
the very blandness of life
She knew—whizzing around her
was neither dirt nor sand
and by the chill she realized—
her world had gone bankrupt
but she ascended
and ascended
upwards
Never before had she seen such
an unchangeable world with unclean
rivers running across
and drops of tears and blood
marking the path below
which had no turning back
-Ani Ilkov,
translated from the Bulgarian
by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer
The Season of Delicate Hunger:
Anthology of Contemporary Bulgarian Poetry
(Accents Publishing)
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)
I rend, you rend.
The asparagus rains down in dashes.
The naked stem is thin.
Unclad,
deceit topples the ladder.
Do you hear the moans of the merry-go-round,
which either picks us up or brings us down.
And the asparagus
is a ladder for the ants.
-Elka Vasileva,
translated from the Bulgarian by
Katerina Stoykova-Klemer
The Season of Delicate Hunger:
Anthology of Contemporary Bulgarian Poetry
(Accents Publishing)
Neck
legs
skin
stomach
liver
kidneys
heart
lard
bristle
intestines:
a dictionary
we cut
into pieces
on the table,
chew on its words,
clueless
about their bloody
etymology. The tongue
only knows
what is
sweet, the eye
enjoys
the shape
of the dish,
and then
the hand (mute, blind, clean)
writes poems
celebrating
dinner.
We say: it’s all a matter
of taste. A culinary
truth. Elegant,
diamond-encrusted
knife sheath
for the knife. A well-directed
TV ad for sausages. The screen
assembled by hungry
people rolling
in the mud.
–Dimiter Kenarov,
translated from the Bulgarian
by Dimiter Kenarov
Dimiter Kenarov was born on January 25th, 1981 in Sofia. He has studied in the United States at Middlebury College and the University of California Berkeley. He works as a freelance journalist, poet, literary critic, translator and writer. He is the author of two collections of poetry, most recently Apocryphal Animals (2010), as well as a book of translations of selected poems of Elizabeth Bishop. His work has appeared in various English language magazines and newspapers and has been anthologized in The Best American Travel Writing. In his free time, Dimiter swims, snowboards and takes pictures of the world.
One man, as alluring as an apple
One man, as exquisite as an asparagus
One man, as bubbly as a grape
One man, as brimming as a watermelon
One man, as boring as a banana
One man, as friendly as a cabbage
One man, as spicy as a radish
One man, as green-eyed as a kiwi
One man, as vulnerable as a peach
One man, as passionate as a tomato
One man, as sly as an eggplant
One man, as green as a cucumber
One man, as locked-up as an apricot
One man, as provocative as a zucchini
One man, as irritable as an onion
One man, as guileless as a pepper
One man, as enticing as a strawberry
Nothing personal, I’m simply hanging out
at the market on the fifth day
of the protein diet.
–Mirela Ivanova
translated from the bulgarian
by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer
from The Season of Delicate Hunger
The blue eyes
screaming in silence
and disobedience
the lips
the upper of which reveals itself
only in a smile
thick and exciting
like a scar from childhood
the groove between the breasts
the truest home
the palms the neck the thighs
pressing my pulse
nobody is irreplaceable
not even I.
-Emanuil Vidinski
translated from the Bulgarian
by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer
The Season of Delicate Hunger (Accents Publishing 2014)
Emanuil Vidinski was born on June 27th, 1978 in Vidin. He holds a degree in Slavic and Germanic studies from St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia. He is the author of a short story collection, a novel and a poetry collection, Par Avion (2011). Emanuil is the creator and editor of the World Novels series for Altera Press. He was an editor in the Bulgarian department of Deutsche Welle radio in Germany from 2008 to 2012. He currently lives and works in Sofia.
