Ivan Hristov [Bulgaria]

 

       WORLD EXPRESSIONS
 

   Borders
 
the border guard

doesn’t know
English
or Russian
he strictly
guards
the borders
of language

  

  A Wave in Thessaloniki
 
                    for Katerina
 
we stand on the shore

talking
a wave
digs
beneath our feet
but that
doesn’t matter...

 

 

Istanbul
 
       1.  
 
the both of us

you and I
are two of a kind
Istanbul
hushed
we stand
in the harbor
of a
long history

our
extremities
sprawling
harmlessly
But who can
take away
our silence
Istanbul
who can...
 

         2.
 
I’ve never

given it
much thought
But things
flow
in a certain direction,
yes things
really
flow
in a certain direction,
will we be able
to follow it

  

        3.
 
            I don’t live, I burn...
                                 P. K. Yavorov
 

I don’t live, I resound
my sound

quietly
glides
over the walls
of Hagia Sophia
quivers slightly
at the top
of the minarets

whispering what
a prayer
to God
or
romantic verses
everyone hears
  

           4.

Basilica Cistern

 
Medusa,
you’ve

been standing
here
with horror
in your eyes
walled up
for two thousand
years
already

simultaneously
terrifying
and beautiful

 

      5.
 

Space between Words

 

your
space

between words
is so
small
Istanbul
so
small
that’s why
we
don’t create

words
we create
stones

 

                 6.

 

                Istanbul

 

Stone

         Upon

                  Stone

                  Sun

         Upon

Sun

Wave

          Upon

                   Wave

                    Silence

                     Upon

                    Silence

 

 

                        7.

My friends

I'm writing to you

from Istanbul
that’s why
I’m not using

any punctuation

marks

 (Translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel)

 

Author’s Bionote:
 
*Ivan Hristov (1978, Bulgaria) is a poet and a literary researcher. He is the author of the poetry collections “Farewell”, “Nineteenth Century” (National Prize for the best poetic debut Southern Spring 2002), “Bdin” (National literary prize Svetlostruy 2006) and “American Poems” (2013). “A Dictionary of Love”, his fourth poetry book, was published in 2018. His works have been translated into a dozen of languages. In 2015, “Bdin” was published in Turkish. The next year “Bdin” followed by “American Poems” came out in Romania. In 2019, within the framework of the European project Versopolis his third poetry book “American Poems” was published in Paris, France and his fourth poetry collection “A Dictionary of Love”, in Bratislava, Slovakia. In 2021, an anthology with his poems was published in Poland. In 2022, a collection of his love poems was published in Slovenia under the title “I am your grain of sand”. Since 2019, Ivan Hristov has been a director of the “Sofia Metaphors” Poetry Festival International Program. He currently works, as an Associate Professor at the Institute for Literature of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.