Tag Archives: roza boyanova

“News” by Roza Boyanova

The Season of Delicate HungerOn the 7th of May the sea pulled away from Balchik.
the standing wave actually paused
to wait for the amazement.

The minarets of Taj Mahal are leaning dangerously….
An airplane with three tons of drugs crashed….
Still the good news hides
in the cave of your silence, Ali Baba—
imprint of lipstick
on a shadow.

While I toyed with the unread
I put a few questions
in random order
with unvaried tone:
does deep meaning hide
behind every ordinary thing?
and do the cosmic dimensions
originate from there?

Suddenly
the past equated itself to today.
But no matter on which side
of the equation I stand,
the scale swings
in favor of the other.
I lighten like a pressed flower….

And not a single piece of good news.

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

image source

“Leftward Water” by Roza Boyanova

The Season of Delicate Hunger

The whirlpool has elsewhere forgotten
the direction of time,
has forgotten how to swim,
has transformed the afterlife into
a drowned hurricane.
It has lost its hands,
numbers and dial.
Yet, if the patient takes a sip,
.           he will either recover
or sink into dim misery.

Death is a black crow on the roof
of every revelation,
and after it
both song and freedom
taste bitter.

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

image source

“You’ve Subsided Like a Water Mirror” by Roza Boyanova

The Season of Delicate HungerFate 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)