as in childhood
I trust only
the simple things
water air light
water always finds a way
it circumvents every obstacle
it widens every crack
the invisible air lets itself be seen
in the motion of branches and twigs
in the spray of waves
it uncovers roofs breaks down trees
only the light has got eyes
in which things look at each other
as in childhood I trust
only the simple things
a bright smile
of a dark-skinned man from Pakistan
who is dancing
on his knees
because he has no feet
in each move
a deep unstoppable
desire for a woman
I trust a twitching face
and hands clinging to a
closed umbrella in her lap
a scrawny woman from Cameroon
with a warm low-pitched voice
she’s all by herself
as in childhood I now trust
only the simple things
the sleep that has to come
the sleep that I call to
out of a wide-awake
pitch-black
night
(memories are glass shards
glass shards in the dark)
Translated from the Slovene by Barbara Jurša
Barbara Jurša is a Slovenian translator, poet and English teacher living in Ljubljana. She has translated some of the works of several contemporary Slovenian poets, including Jana Putrle Srdić (Anything Could Happen, 2014) and Brane Mozetič (Unfinished Sketches of a Revolution, 2018).
Barbara Korun was born in 1963 in Ljubljana, where she received a degree in the Slovene language and comparative literature at the university and where she taught literature to high school students. She also worked at Slovene National Theatre in Ljubljana as a language advisor. Currently, she works as a free-lance writer. Her first poetry collection (The Edge of Grace, 1999) received the National Book Fair Award for a debut collection. For her fourth book (I’ll be right back, 2011) she received the Veronika’s Award (for the best poetry collection of that year) and Golden Bird (for outstanding achievements in literature). Her book of poems Songs of Earth and Lights was published in English translation at Southwords edition in Cork, Ireland 2004.
Barbara Jurša is a Slovenian translator, poet and English teacher living in Ljubljana. She has translated some of the works of several contemporary Slovenian poets, including Jana Putrle Srdić (Anything Could Happen, 2014) and Brane Mozetič (Unfinished Sketches of a Revolution, 2018).
