The End of the Century
Of the Rock that begat thee thou art
unmindful, and hast forgotten God
that formed thee.
V Moses; 32, 18
They say we refused the stone as God’s gift
(instead of it we chose the Fruit and the Fall)
so our life turned green, then ripe and then rotten
and not immutable and immortal
Therefore our prayers are in vain
our breath and words uttered by heart
(breathing as a constant sacrifice?)
from speech – until muteness
Perhaps we’ve already entered the stone
(the darkness within deeper than the darkness without)
within the rock and the cairn at a crossroad
which even at noon doesn’t cast a shadow
and we gaze from within like owls
with sparks in the eyes, praying in silence
and accepting the Nothingness, the bridge
over the abyss between us and God
They say, after our Fall
even God expelled Himself
closed himself within Himself
to be born and to be given birth
And we only kindled the fire
but did not vanish –
we returned to nonexistence
and glow inside
translated by Zoran Ančevski (The End of the Century, Macedonian Poets in the last Decade of the 20th Century, Selection by Danilo Kocevski, Struga Poetry Evenings 1999.)