ABLANATANALBA
In the regions of Eastern Mediterranean at times amulets
were found dating from the Gnostic period with a magic
palindrome inscribed on them:
Ablanatanalba.
I pronounce you O abla O natan O alba
letters inscribed upon silver stone or ivory
You are a red-hot horseshoe in the hands of a blacksmith
A dizzying spiral turning about an imaginary axis
A word-medicine that grows
at a spot
where a poisonous mushroom
was picked at midnight:
Ablanatanalba
A sign that means nothing and everything
O natan that reads the same from the left and from the right
A sulphurous hen brooding over golden eggs.
Black turtle’s eggs buried in the sand
A worthy protective word
even when
every other defence
is too weak:
Ablanatanalba
Knowledge accessible to everyone and to no one
Remember: sator arepo tenet opera rotas
A secret unravelled only by another secret
Sounds that cannot be tamed by any reason
A road sign word that leads
through the underground
where our hands
burrow in dreams only:
Ablanatanalba
A blunt knife with a missing handle
A last fire that shines at the edge of the desert
A child who has a spell for his own fear
A word which has nothing but promises all
A hoard-word that glitters
where
the night steals
all our stars:
Ablanatanalba
A voice from a night land which consciousness avoids daily
A face of a dead queen hidden behind a death mask
Presentiments of events that announce their coming from the horizon
A message from Hermes Trismegistus to Thoth and Abraxas
A blade-word that cuts
where
all other
words yield and crumble:
Ablanatanalba
I pronounce you O abla O natan O alba
There is nothing in you and there is everything
The whole world contained in a single caress
A fruit that smells of summer though the winter shrivelled everything up
A spinning word that
wants to give praise
to the unutterable:
Ablanatanalba
Ablanatanalba
Translated to English: Zoran Ančevski