Επιμέλεια: Εύα Πετροπούλου Λιανού
A thread of fate entwined around
your name
pain, a false chord
struggles with the subtle breath
of body and mind
in the endless night
thought remains pristine
knows no bounds to the penetration
of the metaphysics of pain
free, inquisitively rushes
towards a streak of morning light
bringing relief between
one nerve twitch and another
time cuts the thread – a moment unequal
to a moment in the crack of life
you perceive the omega point in the stigma
of suffering
a still whispered complaint
deep as the breath of the universe
you wrap the shadows of your former life in a tear
*Omega – as the last letter of the Greek alphabet, it symbolizes the end, finality. (Here and further are the author’s notes)
Translated by Olga Smolnytska
„Stay a while, you are so beautiful”
Faust, J. W. Goethe*
Dance the night away
let’s go to where my life is
beyond the realm of gray
a special time smells of surprise
maybe it will bring change
a bouquet of blossoming love
let the dancing circle spin
second hands don’t get stuck
in the hourglass
blood echoes in their pulses
they turn the year faster in the sphere
than someone discovers the philosopher’s stone
immerse the latter in a wrinkle
the elements will not block her path
an explosion of gestures
in his movements one can see a tangle of traits
let us enjoy every moment
when there are only few of them left
let us dance the night away
in an orchard of blossoming apple trees
*Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), the most prominent German poet, playwright, prose writer, philosopher, and statesman.
Translated by Olga Smolnytska
Aleksandra Sołtysiak (Poland), graduate of the Catholic University of Lublin and Jagiellonian University in Kraków. She has served as coeditor of the poetry anthology Dotyk nadzie (The Touch of Hope), which was translated into Ukrainian and German, as well as of the international anthology in support of world peace The tree of peace turns green / European poetry for universal harmony, which has been translated into Polish and English. She i also the author Hope blossoms longer and the published poetry volume „Spilled from the cases”. Finalist in the fourth International Poetry Contest, „Voices in the Wilderness” held in Rome (2022). She publishes nationally and internationally. She has also been awarded the Gold Cross of Merit by Polish president Andrzej Duda. In 2023 distinguished with a medal for Merit to Polish Culture.
Information about the translator: Olga Smolnytska ( Ukrainian), PhD, translator, writer, artist, literary critic.
Selected publications of her translations of classics and contemporary literature arc:
John Milton, Rudygard Kipling, John Steinbeck, Wiliam Faulkner, Kurt Vonnegut and others including fantasy, Medieval European poetry, etc.
