Tag Archives: the season of delicate hunger

“What’s the Ocean for” by Petja Heinrich

523 Replies

if there is nobody

to contemplate it
to lick its salt and to bring back
the discarded whales

to be vulnerable and small

to be swept with a single wind gust
a single wave to cover it whole
and carry it away

what is it for
if there is nobody

the ocean hangs on your little finger

–Петя Хайнрих
(Petja Heinrich),
translated from the Bulgarian
by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer,
The Season of Delicate Hunger
(Accents Publishing)

Petja Heinrich was born on October 4th, 1973 in Sofia. She holds a degree in journalism from St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia. She translates poetry from German into Bulgarian and has contributed to various German and Bulgarian publications. Petja is the founder of poetry print journal But Poetry, and she frequently blogs at mislidumi.de. She is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Fly Up and Catch Us (2012). She lives in Düsseldorf, Germany. She is a biker who talks with birds.

“The Snake” by Daniela Mihaleva

216 Replies

I’m as poisonous as an apple
the snake told eve
everything in this world is halved
believe me
I’ve long been sneaking
among the fig leaves

and I always survive
I’m attracted to heat
to the smoke ring behind your ebony lashes
to adam’s neck
to the monkeys on the tree

I lie still

the falling dusk
lulls me to sleep
ever so steadily

I slip away

I can undress
as if I’m about to bathe
in something familiar
but I never remain naked

who is to tempt the snake

I sink
into the apple

–Даниела Михалева
(Daniela Mihaleva),
The Season of Delicate Hunger:
Anthology of Contemporary Bulgarian Poetry
(Accents Publishing)

Daniela Mihaleva was born on October 29th, 1971 in Varna. She holds a degree in education. She likes to draw and write poetry and short fiction. Her work has received several literary awards, and her debut poetry collection, A Positive, won the Ars Press first book contest in 2009. Daniela lives and writes in Pleven.

“(I Dream that I Cover the Grave with Wet Blankets)” by Marin Bodakov

18 Replies

my father’s corpses—
no irresponsible copies, only originals,
many bodies of the same old man—
stretching everywhere around my home,
face down

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

Marin Bodakov was born on April 28th, 1971 in Veliko Tarnovo. He holds a degree in Bulgarian philology from St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia. He teaches at St. Kliment Ohridski University, and since 2000, he has managed the literary department of Kultura newspaper. He and his wife, translator Zornitsa Hristova founded Tochitsa—an independent press for children’s educational literature. Marin is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Naïve Art (2011), for which he received the Ivan Nikolov National Literary Award.

“Haven’t They Discovered My Absence Yet?” by Yordan Efftimov

211 Replies

He fell asleep on the air mattress
and woke up in the open sea.

How many missed calls fill the phone buried in the sand?
Or is there no signal in this wild gulf, so hard to find?
Will the sunset come soon enough?
Sunburn in the open sea hurts worse
than inhaling after laughter.

Haven’t they discovered my absence yet?

A friend insists that
the castaway has already been saved.
Terrible is the fate of the wandering sailor.

-Yordan Efftimov,
translated from the Bulgarian
by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer
The Season of Delicate Hunger:
Anthology of Contemporary Bulgarian Poetry

Yordan Efftimov was born on January 23rd, 1971 in Razgrad. He holds a Ph.D. in Bulgarian literature from St. Kliment Ohridski University. He teaches theory of literature in New Bulgarian University in Sofia. Yordan has worked as an editor and columnist, and has hosted radio and television literary programs. He is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently The Heart is Not a Creator (2013), along with five monographs and two textbooks on modern and ancient literature. He lives and works in Sofia.

“Clearing” by Nikolay Boykov

402 Replies

when the moon is only a moon
and the man next to me only a man
I want to write a poem
of when the moon is only a moon
and the man only a man
with words which are only words
and on the notepad’s page: a flattened moth

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

Nikolay Boykov was born on January 26th, 1968 in Vidin. He holds a degree in Hungarian philology from Lajos Kossuth University in Debrecen, Hungary. Nikolay has served as an instructor of Hungarian language and literature at St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia. He is the author of three books of poetry and two books of prose, most recently The Book of Life (2010). Additionally, he has translated several Hungarian authors into Bulgarian, including The Union Jack by Imre Kertész.

“Time is a Neutron Bomb” by Georgi Gospodinov

267 Replies

Nothing will be knocked down,
the houses will stay,
the streets will stay,
the cherry tree in the yard will stay.
Only we won’t be here.
That was the lesson
about the neutron bomb.

I’ve known since then,
death is a cherry,
ripening without me.

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

Georgi Gospodinov was born on January 7th, 1968 in Yambol. He holds a Ph.D. in literary history from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He is a poet, writer and playwright, and one of the most translated Bulgarian authors since 1989. Georgi has published four poetry books that have received national literary awards, among them the National Debut Award and the Best Book of the Year Prize. His poetry has appeared in many international anthologies, and his book Natural Novel has been translated into over 20 languages. He has authored screenplays, as well, including the short feature Omelette, which received honorable mention at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009. Georgi is an editor of the respected literary gazette Literaturen Vestnik. He lives and works in Sofia.

“Recommendation to God” by Bina Kals

706 Replies

God if you were born now among us
do you think we’d recognize you

just don’t arrive in a stable
because the media wouldn’t cover that

if you again decided to feed us
with two fish and five loaves of bread
I doubt we’d like it

you know we’ve advanced a good deal
we prefer our bread toasted
and of the fish—caviar
promotes skin regeneration
and removes free radicals

if you haven’t sunk into despair
send only a single star but if possible
far away from the gravitational field of the earth
otherwise global political chaos would ensue

if you have other things to do
do not reopen our eyes
otherwise mel gibson may come out with a new film
in which again you’re being lashed
for an entire 11 minutes
I don’t know how we could stand that

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

Bina Kals was born on March 15th, 1967 in Bourgas. She holds a degree in biotechnology engineering and is currently studying theology. She has worked as a community organizer and cultural liaison. Bina is the author of two books of poetry, most recently Twelve Hours of Santorini (2011), for which she received a literary award. Bina lives and writes in Bourgas.

“It’s 5 to 10, 5 Minutes before the Beginning” by Kristin Dimitrova

167 Replies

The executioner removed his mask.
The condemned removed the sack from his head.
Both had identical faces.
Then one said to the other:
This is strange, but
it doesn’t change things.
It’s not even important.
Now the question is
how to kill
the eternal five minutes.

-Kristin Dimitrova,
translated from the Bulgarian
by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer
The Season of Delicate Hunger
(Accents Publishing 2014)

Kristin Dimitrova was born on May 19th, 1963 in Sofia. She is the author of 10 books of poetry, most recently The Garden of Expectations and the Opposite Door (2012), as well as a novel, two short story collections and a set of four travelogues. Kristin is also a co-scriptwriter of the feature film The Goat (2009). She has received five national awards for poetry, three for fiction and one for the translation of a selection of poems by English poet John Donne. Her poems, short stories and essays have been translated into 24 languages and published in 26 countries. She lives and works in Sofia.

“Rain” by Aksinia Mihaylova

1 Reply

Half an hour I’ve been standing in the shower
and can’t wash off this haunting dream
pursuing me for years,
in which you abandon me
at the farmer’s market
in a southern city.
The tides of blood discard
sand and dead jellyfish in my eyes
and I can’t see how you walk away
carrying someone else’s joy
leaning on your shoulder.

April opens its balconies,
yet the cat in me does not wake up
for the fifth straight month:
hot tin roofs,
sunny tiled roofs
are scenes from another season.

I dig a furrow under the fig,
squeeze in my palm
valerian seeds
and I talk to them in a strange dialect,
but the rain doesn’t come
and you won’t understand anyway
how you need to love me.

Over my head a cloud hangs
like a promise.

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

Aksinia Mihaylova was born on April 13th, 1963 in the northwest region of Bulgaria. She holds a degree in Bulgarian philology from St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia. She is a founding editor of the literary journal Ah, Maria. Aksinia is the author of three poetry books. Her most recent book,Unbuttoning of the Body (2011), won both the Hristo Fotev Annual Poetry Award and the Milosh Zyapkov National Award for Literature. She has translated over 30 books of poetry and prose, and has edited anthologies of contemporary Lithuanian and Latvian poetry. She lives and works in Sofia.

“she prepares a romantic dinner” by Yordanka Beleva

218 Replies

Accents-published poet Nettie Farris reads “She prepares a romantic dinner” by Yordanka Beleva. This poem was translated by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer.

Clip from the North American Premiere of The Season of Delicate Hunger: Anthology of Contemporary Bulgarian Poetry (Accents Publishing) at the Morris book shop. The reading took place on Saturday, January 24, 2014.

Nettie Farris is the author of Communion (Accents Publishing, 2013) and—most recently—Fat Crayons (Finishing Line Press 2015). According to her 2015 LexPoMo bio, Nettie spends her spare time writing poems, practicing yoga, attending mass, praying the rosary, and, like Alice, going to tea parties.

Yordanka Beleva was born on June 20th, 1977 in Tervel. She holds a degree in Bulgarian philology and library management from Kontantin Preslavsky University of Shumen. She is the author of three poetry books, most recently Her (2012), as well as a collection of stories. Yordanka has received various awards for her poetry, including first place in the Veselin Hanchev National Contest. She lives and writes in Sofia.

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