Zbornik Mednarodnega literarnega srečanja Vilenica 2004 - Ljudmila

Elegy About an Acacia Under the Window
1.
How many times have you seen this treetop,
its leaves quivering or at peace,
its twigs thin as burst
capillaries on an eye;
that tree trunk, upright
as an exclamation mark,
and the branches, spreading aside
as if fumbling for something.
You were afraid that you would not find
the words for a poem,
that you might lose it:
as if a poem could disappear,
vanish, turn into silence, into air.
In autumn, the tree used to lose its leaves,
in spring it would get them again.
So it seemed to you.
And the acacia was there, under your
window, unable to move —
except in a stormy nightmare.
2.
Vojislav Karanović
The fallen leaves roll along
the asphalt, slowly changing
their colour, from green to dark brown.
More and more they resemble
faces of children at dusk, when the day wanes.
So many times you watched that tree
and it offered itself to your glance,
indifferent, with its breath abate.
Its root hair, its tissue, the juices that
feed the body that wriggles
and breaks away from the firm embrace
of your consciousness. Maybe you do not see it
189