Tag Archives: mirela ivanova

“The Love Emails Fly, Then Stop” by Mirela Ivanova

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The Season of Delicate Hunger.                               I kiss each word,
.                              individually the wings of the words,
.                               individually the souls of the words,
.                               the commas, the periods, the thrill
.                               and the passion, and finally
.                               your name.
Then with the Delete key I obliterate
each word, the wings of the words
and the souls of the words, the commas,
the periods, the thrill and the passion,
and finally your name.
I obliterate that vertigo,
the swaying from no to yes,
the loss of balance
and the collapse of one into the other.
I obliterate the towns and the trains,
and the embraces in that summer,
I obliterate the daze, the rains and the rooms,
and you, enlightened and confused, nude and white
amidst the rooms, with the three marriages
and the two Germanys, I obliterate you.
My omniscient, crumbly parchment,
as priceless as if pre-Christ, undeciphered,
I obliterate you with the cold sores
from that feverish fall,
with the air sweaty with flu, palpitations,
moans, melding, sleep and more, and again.
I obliterate you with the aspirins, the drops,
the chamomile tea, the eucalyptus balm,
which I rub slow and long
into your slow and long body.
I obliterate you with your naïve oddities,
with the vanity, with your pouting lips,
with the all-embracing arms
and the incinerating fingers.
I obliterate you while you are dreaming of soup,
engrossed in a book, enlightened and confused
.                               omniscient, beautiful
.                               and loved, I obliterate you,
.                               and thus I obliterate myself also,
.                               I obliterate love,
.                               because we do not deserve it.

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

Mirela Ivanova was born on May 11th, 1962 in Sofia. She holds a degree in Bulgarian philology from Paisii Hilendarski University in Plovdiv. She is the author of seven books of poetry, among which areStone Wings and Memory for Details. Her poetry has been translated and published in many languages, and a collection of selected poems, Lonely Game, was published in Germany in 2002. Mirela has received a number of Bulgarian literary awards, as well as the 2002 Hermann Lenz Prize for modern poetry from Eastern and Southeastern Europe. She currently lives and works in Sofia.

“What I Wanted but Couldn’t Tell…” by Mirela Ivanova

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Leatha Kendrick reading “What I Wanted but Couldn’t Tell…” by Mirela Ivanova.

Poem’s full title:
WHAT I REMEMBERED, BUT COULDN’T TELL MY SIX-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER, WHILE WE WERE STUCK FOR 11 MINUTES IN THE ELEVATOR AND SHE TUMBLED, BOUNCED FROM CORNER TO CORNER LIKE A BLAZED AND CRAZED, SPARKLING FIREWORK AND HER TEARS ROLLED GIANT, APOCALYPTIC BEHIND THE LENSES OF HER GLASSES, AND I WAS TRYING TO YELL OVER HER HORROR, TO PET HER SCARLET CHEEKS AND FOREHEAD, TO EMBRACE HER AND GATHER HER BACK INTO MYSELF AND SING TO HER CONSOLINGLY, BECAUSE I ALREADY KNEW THAT CHILDREN RECOGNIZE THE VOICES AND THE PULSES OF THEIR MOTHERS FROM AMONG 3000 NOISES

from The Season of Delicate Hunger: Anthology of Contemporary Bulgarian Poetry

To see more from Leatha Kendrick, don’t forget to check out Stars with Accents this Sunday at 7PM at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning where she’ll be reading with Paulette Livers and Lisa Williams in an event hosted by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer.

Mirela Ivanova was born on May 11th, 1962 in Sofia. She holds a degree in Bulgarian philology from Paisii Hilendarski University in Plovdiv. She is the author of seven books of poetry, among which are Stone Wings and Memory for Details. Her poetry has been translated and published in many languages, and a collection of selected poems, Lonely Game, was published in Germany in 2002. Mirela has received a number of Bulgarian literary awards, as well as the 2002 Hermann Lenz Prize for modern poetry from Eastern and Southeastern Europe. She currently lives and works in Sofia.

“Nothing Personal” by Mirela Ivanova

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The Season of Delicate HungerOne 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

Mirela Ivanova was born on May 11th, 1962 in Sofia. She holds a degree in Bulgarian philology from Paisii Hilendarski University in Plovdiv. She is the author of seven books of poetry, among which are Stone Wings and Memory for Details. Her poetry has been translated and published in many languages, and a collection of selected poems, Lonely Game, was published in Germany in 2002. Mirela has received a number of Bulgarian literary awards, as well as the 2002 Hermann Lenz Prize for modern poetry from Eastern and Southeastern Europe. She currently lives and works in Sofia.