Poem 44 in Solidarity: Permanentna Revolucija Jezika Ljubavne Poezije

by Marko Pogačar

Permanentna Revolucija Jezika Ljubavne Poezije. Umornim Trockistima 

Kako, godine 2013., pisati ljubavnu poeziju?
ovo je vrijeme gusto od ljubavi.

svi nas, naime, umjereno vole.
teorija govori o potpunom izostanku kretanja.

tržište kaže: ako govoriš o ljubavi,
govoriš o bogu, ili obrnuto.

Pogačar misli: sve je bog = bog je ništa.
bombarder prepun opasnog značenja.

ali negdje u kutku te ljubavi, kada je pritisneš uz zid,
izrasta nešto bezrezervno.

rezervat uzimanja i davanja.
i u njemu baobab čijom se krošnjom uspinješ k nebu.

na kraju znaš: jedina strašnija stvar od fašizma
je umjereni fašizam.

Permanent Revolution of Love Poetry’s Language. To the Tired Trockists

How, in the year 2013, to write love poetry?
the time is dense with love.

everyone, namely, loves us moderately.
the theory speaks of complete lack of movement.

the market says: if you talk about love,
you talk about god, or vice versa.

Pogačar thinks: everything is god = god is nothing.
a bomber loaded with dangerous meaning.

but somewhere in the corner of that love, when you press it against the wall,
something unconditional grows.

a nature reserve of give and take.
and in it a baobab through whose branches you climb up to the sky.

in the end you know: one thing more horrible than fascism
is moderate fascism.

Translated from Croatian by Tomislav Kuzmanović 

Marko Pogačar

Marko Pogačar was born in 1984. in Split, Yugoslavia. He is an editor of Quorum, a literary magazine, and Zarez, a bi-weekly for cultural and social issues. His publications include four poetry collections, two books of essays and a short story collection. He was a fellow of, among others, Civitella Ranieri, Passa Porta, Milo Dor, Brandenburger Tor,Internationales Haus der Autoren Graz and Récollets-Paris fellowships. His texts appeared in more than twenty languages.

Poem 20 In Solidarity: Durruti 1936

by DAMIR ŠODAN

Durruti 1936

Hooligan-hero, anarchist leader,
son of a railway worker, a guerrilla
with the eyes of a child and the face of a savage
proletarian propagandist, Buenaventura Durruti
insisted most of all on clarity of expression.

When he had the floor everybody understood.
Emma Goldman said that she found him a veritable beehive
of activity. And he was allegedly always in good mood.

Durruti’s Column
was built on self-sacrifice and libertarian spirit.
His funeral magnificently draped all of Barcelona in black
and red. A glorious crowd of half a million
poured down Via Layetana just like that.

Even the Russian consul
was deeply moved
at the sight of that crowd with fists in the air
who swore in that anarchist
who believed that only generals rule by force
and that discipline always comes
like a spout of enlightenment
exclusively from within.

DAMIR ŠODAN (1964) poet, playwright, editor and translator was born in Split, Croatia. He has published four volumes of poetry, two volumes o plays and an anthology of Croatian contemporary “neorealist” poetry. He is an associate editor of Poezija and Quorum magazines in Zagreb and the member of Croatian writers’ society (HDP) and Croatian PEN. For many years he has lived in the Hague, the Netherlands, where he works as a translator for the United nations.