Dragan Dragojlovic [Serbia]

 

Timeless Gardens
 
In poetry’s warm snares
melancholy has built
a nest for words
banished from the gardens of Heaven,
which pine for their homeland,
for the fruit of the Tree of Goodness
which still grows
where it was planted
by the eldest son of time.
 
From the icy plains of our lives
trackers come into our dreams,
and fate, with a hand of stone,
gathers flowers and dew
in gardens of unchanging seasons –
to feed sorrow
on its journey upon the Earth,
while poets
stand at the gates of the Creator
trusting in his silence –
 
which they want to turn into words,
into a cry whose echo,
thrown back from the stars,
will become a magic stone,
a crystal that can
sculpture silence,
and be used to write pure poetry.
 
 
In the Squares of Babilon
 
Plug your ears with your palms,
do not listen to the conversation
between your time
and some other time.
 
Do not heed
the effort of this moment
to run away from itself
and from it all.
 
Are calamities brought about
by humans or time?
Do not listen to your inner strife
over this matter.
 
It will be best to take a pen
and find refuge in a poem.
 
There you will be content and lonely
like a slave in the squares of Babilon.
 
 
Command to Death
 
Saddle a shaggy ram,
drive it up fierce slopes.
With a trident in your hand
go through our garden
without opening paths
to our dream.
Quietly call out
and gather your escorts
while immeasurable time
renews eternity with oblivion
in the rhythm of your heart.
Mow mercilessly
with a scythe the devil slaps together,
while an angel sharpens it
and splashes it with holy water.
 
And when you wear down,
drop your head on our shoulder,
heed a mortal heart,
conceive its immortal hope.

 
                                   
Author’s Bionote:
 
*Dragan Dragojlović (1941) was born in Serbia. He graduated and obtained his master’s degree (International Economic Relations) in Economy at Belgrade University. Among other things, he had been Ambassador of Yugoslavia in Australia and New Zealand and director of the Ivo Andric Foundation in Belgrade. He published 24 poetry books in Serbian language and four books of Selected Poems. Books of poetry in the foreign languages: Failed Encounters in Albanian,1983; Selection from two books in Macedonian,1988. The Book of Love: in Romania, 1996; Germany, 1997; Italy, 1997; Australia, 2000 and in China, 2013. Invoking God: in Italy, 1996; Switzerland, 1996; USA, 1998; Romania, 2011; Greece, 2007; in Poland, 2019. and in French language, 2018. Death’s Homeland: in English,1997; in USA, 2008; China, 2009 and in Turkey, bilingual edition – Turkish and English languages, 2009. Traces of our Lives, USA, 2010. Also, his poems have been published in more anthologies in Serbia and abroad, and in the literature newspapers and magazines in many countries. His books can be found in hundreds of libraries around the world. Selected Poems was published in Melbourne, Australia, 2001; in China, 2006; Russia, 2015; Monte Negro, 2016; Poland, 2016; in Spanish language 2009; two books in India, different selections, one published in Bengali, the other in Hindi language. Two of his books were published as a bibliophile edition, one in Serbian, other in Italy as a bilingual edition (Italian and Serbian languages). He is a recipient of more literary awards in his own country. The most precious award from abroad is Golden Magnolia of Shanghai International Poetry Festival, October 2020. He spent two and half months in 2009 on a study stay on call Massachusetts University in Boston, USA. Since 2009,  he has been a full member of the European Academy of Poetry. He had become a member of the Academy of American Poets in 2008. He is a member of the Serbian PEN. He translates poetry from English language and lives in Belgrade.