Dubravka Djurić

PEPC LIBRARY

Dubravka Djurić

"Post-Communist Poetry" from 99 Poets/1999

"A Few Statements on Politics and Power in Culture"from Chain I

"Letters from Belgrade" (1999) -- emails written to Charles Bernstein during the US bombing of Beograd (from Chain, 7)

Review of Close Listening: Poetry and the Performed Word (from Sanizdat)

Poems

REMEĆENJE

1.

         Lakše diše paradoks slika se
izmišljam        jedem       zurim
isto je isto    uvek i sad
                                posle je ostatak na stolu
majka i otac posle je isto
            znam da se dešava slučajno
iz istog htenja hitac hita hitro ka
                     zato sam zatvorila vrata
vatra je voda posle onog što sledi se.

          Nije želja strah cveća
uvela uginula krtica krtičnjak
                    iz jedne se u jednu mnoštvo tako
je ovde iz semena (stvari) stvar je u umu
veličina
                         želja želje se suši i slama
                                         ako je samo samo u sumnji
isto je bilo u praznoj sobi
                                   tišina.

Jednostavno izgovori imena imena
i dajem sebe imenu ne nagoveštavajući sebe u
rečima slova imena su sebe dala za ime
mene imena u tebi izgovaraš.

Posle svakog dana sledi dan iznutra
izokrenut na terasi između vrata izokrenut
jednom se desilo ali ne ponovo kada je
izokrenut posle svakog dana je.

Ne postavljaj pitanje u zagradama između
niza drveća /drvored/ u zamornom ritmu
monotono nizanje niz brdo ali samo zato
da se vidi niz kao odraz želje i htenja kao
kružno kretanje rečenice iza i ispred je i
jeste zato što tako se nastavlja
reč na reč naslanja u značenju i simbolično
isti proces je uvek samo naglasak
pomeren s one strane iza ili ispred
iznad ili ispod isto je.

Disordering

1

Lackadaisical paradox drowns itself

imagines eats stares

same’s same always and now

later is what’s left on table

mother and father later’s same

knows it’s happening haphazardly

with plain want hurtling at

so am shutting shutters

to shower on fire later freezes itself

Not a wish -- fear of flower

wilted faded mole moldering

from a one to ones multitude

is here from semen (things) thing in mind

magnitude

wish’s wish dries, breaks

if is only lonely in doubt

same’s in empty room

silence.

3

Simply spit out name’s names

I give myself to names not apparently in

words names’ letters gave for names

my names in you spit out.

Later every day follows the day inside

upsidedown on floors between doors upsidedown

once happened but not again when it’s

upsidedown later everyday is

Don’t ask questions in brackets among

rows of trees /among rows of trees/ in tedious rhythm

monotonous queries down the hill but only

to see rows like the reflection of wish and want like

circling in circles a sentence behind and in front is and

it is because continuity

word on word leans in meaning and symbolically

removed from that side behind or in front

above or below the same is.

Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Charles Bernstein & Dubrvka Djuric.

from Traps [Klopke]

Glasnici žara, pesnici zara
metričke šeme, poglede lenje
Logika rasta i smrti
Zvonki zvonici proplanka se ruše
Zora mora se obrušava u more i u more
Mržnja plamti, osvetljava lavirint kaveza
Sveza glatka u čvoru proreza
Seci prizme, svuci svice, svete osvete sveti
Sumanuto mrmori more
razgovor zgodan, zavodljiv
u nepovrat
Nizovi, noževi, vrata, vrteške
Venac smrti koloplet
Visovi vise, šale zavaljene u otrovne spletke
Grobnice groblja života
Zamci zameci ljubavi
Srušene kule krhke
kamen - pramen
plamen - amen
satri

Male spletke koloplet pletu
usmrćene padaju reči u grobnice žive
Trome babaroge, vedre visibake

Koloplet priziva svet, manje lep,
više slep, razapet

Razapni raspone, živa tkiva
mora, reka, krova preka

Rovovi, korovi, krovovi
Rebra, srebra, saća, sačme, sume
Brige, bitke, bistrog vida
Vida i Vid ponovo vide
Volovi upregnuti
Jaram jare
zarovi zlobe
i globe

Dušmani potkradaju očeve, čajeve, čase
Dužnici bezočni sakate skute i kute
krilate rosne ruse kose
Klovnovi pale i žare
a sloboda u hadu se smeje
HA HA HA HA HA
Vode se borbe između reči
Reči na slobodi podležu merama novim
ubijaju bivstva
krišom žare i pale skelete ludosti
ludila lomna u krhotine razbijaju

zarad pesme
zarad mora
krhkog bora
novog epa

Brižljivo umotani u bele smetove
penjemo se proplankom
palimo snegove i bele bregove
oni se otapaju i plave
grešna čeda jednog pera

Primi pokoru, pokaj se
Pročisti se u belom plamenu vejavice
Spali lice-sliku jastva

Belo belo sve je belo

vatra boli sve izgoni
pali zgarišta misli
plavi želje, pali mene
u zgarište pretvara telo i tlo

Tri put se okrećem
Tri put se pomolim

Ponori zjape
skidaju kape

Prostori gutaju propuste, promrzle prste

Zlato, zlatnici zore
zvuci, budnici zvona
useci trona
Triptisi
Diptisi
dvopolnog, tropolnog jezika
zapisi bezvučja eterom lebde

Dižemo se na prste da bismo osmotrili vidik
jezik hermafrodit
pijan, tajnovit, nasilan

Suma ovih reči
Sila ovog koda

Obodi, ograničenja, norme, dogme
školjke, krljušt, koža

Kupola sam od tvog tela

sva sam bela
sva sam smela
jer sam svela
svo znanje na zabran
sav zabran na tok
koji teče iznad zore
iznad mora i ponora
iznad vida nedovida
mračnog hora iz ponora
zvezdanog pakla jezika-zbora

A ono je telo zvezda, gorja, dola
telo smrti u snu pesme
tesne međe, testo tela
oblikom ga smernim smera
ka beskraju nedogleda
ka glosama glasomornim
i zorama zornim

Nova sunca
Nove zore
Nove zvezde
Kule tela
kupe tora
Zlatnih toka i protoka
Plime bola
Plitke, pomne
Posmatraj

Zvona su zamrla
Glasovi se ne glase
Zagušljiva tišina
Razborna maglina-magma

Poneki treptaj usidren u luci iluzija

lomovi, praskovi, gromovi
munje, mačevi, bodeži

pridrži drhtavicu
ućutkaj oglicu
pričvrsti pijavicu
krvavu pesmu krika

Smrt smtr smrt
peva pesmu

Pomor reči , pomor rima, pomor ritma

Rušim reči , rušim rime, rušim ritme
Gorostasne, divlje, podivljale

Ljubim oko svevido
Skupljam prizme isklizle
Mlatim mere-protuvke
Bllede, beskrvne

Sluga sam tvoj o, Reči
pusti krv da poteče
i odnese bolest besa

Bistra reči ca lako nabuja u potok

potok-optok
protok-tok

Tornjevi pakla, polja mraka
Tornjevi-skeleti smrti
Lave, lišaji, pedalizirani
Likovi-oblici stražare
Napuštaju, odlaze,
pustoši,
pokreti, kordoni ukleti,
koračaju aveti,
svedeni na sudbu
usud i tmina
i strašni sud
smehom ih dočekuje
smrtne smrti
spaljene, bezdušne, koračaju
dužnici ste usuda
glasnici presuda
Pomilujte!
Oprost dajte
prostoj smrti!

from Traps

Messenger of embers, poet of veil
metric devices, lazy sights
Logic of growth and close
Tolling hill-spires topple
Sunrise at sea, twilight of nightmares
Hatred flares, lightning the maze of cages
Smooth bond in knot of split

Cut the prism, strip the firefly, sacred vengeance revenged
Madly murmurs the sea
conversation pretty, seductive
one-way
Lines, knives, doors, merry-go-rounds
Wreathes of death, ring around the rosy
Heights hang, jokes thrown down in poison intrigues
Graves - graveyards of lives
Castle - germs of love
Smashed fragile towers
Stamen - haven
flaming - amen
Crushed

Little intrigues knit the chain
opponent-slogans alive into graves
Sluggish witches, merry snowdrops

Folkdances make the world less nice

Crucify fructify, vivider divots
of homes, of rivers and angry roofs

Feeds, weeds, tweeds
Rubber, lubber, bullets, nuggets, druggist
Stares, flights of clear glare
Vid and Vida can see again
Sheep harnessed
Yoke of sultriness
Veils of malice
and fines

Enemies ingenuous fathers, dresses, glasses
Debtors of limbs mangle laps and kneecaps
tearing their dewy hairs
Clowns rise and glow
and liberty from Hades laughs
HA HA HA HA HA
Fights between words narrate
"Words in freedom" submit to new meters
killers
secretly burn 'n' turn skeleton's lunacy
fragile madness in crops broke

for the ode
for the line
fragile pine
of "new epics"

Carefully wrapped up in white drifts
we climb the glade
burning snows and white hills
they thaw and flood
sinned infant of a quill

Receive penitence, be penitant
Purify yourself in the white flame of the snowstorm
Burn the face, picture of the self

"White, white, everything is white"

fire of pain exiles thought
Burn burnt place of thoughts
flood the wishes, burning
into burnt place transmutes body and ground

Three times I turn around
Three times I pray

Abysses gape
put down its hats

Spaces swallow failures, frozen fingers

Gold, golden coins of dawn
sounds, waker of gongs
splits of throne
Threefolds
Twofolds
of bipolar, three-polar language
notations of soundlessness flow in ether

We rise on our tip-toes to see the prospect
language hermaphrodite
drunken, secret, severe

Sum of these words
Power of this code

Brims, boundaries, norms, dogmas
shells, scale, skin

"I am a cupola of your body

I am all white"
I am all daring
since I reduce
all knowledge to taboo
all forbidden to flow
which flows above the dawn
above the sea and abyss
above glare of the invisible
darkened chorus out of abyss
of starry hell of language-gathering

And it is the body of stars, woods, vales
body of death in dream of a poem
shallow borders, dough of body
by modest shape it is intended
toward the infinity of unseen
toward horrible sound of glosses
and clear dawns

New suns
New dawns
New stars
Towers of bodies
Cone of pens
Of golden coins and flowers
Tides of pain
Low, careful
Look

The bells are comatose
Voices do not voice
Stuffy silence
Reasonable mist-lava

Some twinkle anchored in harbor of collusion

breaches, seizures, thunders
lightning, sabers, blades

keep the trembling
hush the necklace
fasten the leech
bloody poem of plea

Death, death, death
sings a song

Swept words, swept rhymes, swept rhythms

I destroy words, I destroy rhymes, I destroy rhythms
gigantic, wild, stray

I kiss the all-observing eye
I collect prisms slipped
I beat meters-vagabonds
pale, bloodless

I am your servant, Oh, Word
Let the blood bleed
and take off the sickness of fury

Clear little river floods into sentences

brook - talk
talk - took

Steeples of hell, fields of darkness
Steeples-skeletons of death
Lava, lichen, ludicrous
Shapes-shades are mounted on the ground
The cursed cordons cut out
ghosts march,
deduced to a destiny
fate and darkness
and day of judgment
welcome them with laughing
deadly deaths
burned up, heartless, soul keepers'
you are the debtors of fate
messengers of judgments
Give amnesty!
Bestow indulgences
to the simple death!

Translated from Serbo-Croatian by James Sherry and the author

Also by Djurić, in English on the web:
XXX from R/IFT

Juliana Spahr with Djurić, 2003

Dubravka Djurić, born in 1961 in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and lives in Belgrade, Serbia. She writes poetry and essays, and is engaged in performance. She has published several collections of poems including The Nature of the Moon, the Nature of the Woman (1989), Traps (1995), Cosmopolitan Alphabet (1995). She is an editor of ProFemina and lectures at the Center for Women's Studies in Belgrade. In addition, Djuric is an active translator of American poetry.With Misko Suvokovic, she is editor of Impossible Histories Impossible Histories: Historic Avant-Gardes, Neo-Avant-Gardes, and Post-Avant-Gardes in Yugoslavia, 1918-1991 from MIT Press (2004)