kapka kassabova

....'ele deve ser bósnio ou albanês'.
'não, Ela é búlgara'
'to começando':
Emrah diz:

My Life in Two Parts

1

Outside my window is a row of poplars
growing from the turf of childhood.
Poplars grow in rows, never on their own.
It is Christmas. The sky is full of stars,
the branches are bare,
the wolves distant and menacing.
Now is the only time for oranges.
Their brisk fragrance fills the nails
as we lie in cold rooms high in the Balkans
dreaming of palm trees and the world.

2
Outside my window is a palm tree.
It is winter. The sky is enormous
and the ocean follows the moon.
Oranges are on the window-sill with other
tropical fruit no longer of interest
Bright-plumed parakeets sway in the palm tree
and that's the only time I look up.
I lie in the low, stuffy rooms of adulthood
dreaming of poplars and the world.
Always they come in rows.


Emrah diz:
- Kapka Kassabova, 'My Life in Two Parts' in ed. Michael Hanne, Creativity in Exile (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004): 138-9