Granice grada
Da bismo znali granice grada
I granice našeg života,
Podigli smo tvrđavu.
Oni koji će doći,
Kao što dolazi voda,
Oni koji će doći na gradski trg
Koristeći se vazduhom
I svojstvima vode,
Vatrom, neprevaziđenom vatrom,
I plodovima zemlje,
Prema tvrđavi će
Upravljati svoje kretanje,
A u padu gradske kule
Poznaće čas svoje pobede.
City Limits
In order to know the limits of the city
And the limits of our lives,
We erected the tower.
Those to come,
As water comes,
Those to come to the city square
Using the air
And the properties of water,
Fire, the unsurpassable fire,
And the fruits of the earth,
Will be guided by the tower
And in the fall of the city tower
Will recognize the hour of their victory.
Translated: Radmila Nastić
Gojko Božović
Granice grada (City Limits)
My Lights
About Gojko Božović
Gojko Božović (1972), poet, essayist, literary critic, editor and publisher.
Books of poetry: Underground Cinema (1991), Soul of the Beast (1993), Poems of Things (1996), Archipelago (2002), Elements (2006), Nearby Deities (2012), Map (2017), Silent Beast at Noon (selected poems and chronicles, 2019).
Book of essays: Poetry in Time: On the Serbian Poetry of the Second Half of the 20th Century (2000), Place We Love: On the Contemporary Serbian Poetry (2009), Literature and Days (2018), Kingdom without Borders: On the Serbian Poetry of the 20th and 21th Century (2019), Playthings of Destiny: Essays on Serbian literature: XIX-XXI century (2020).
Anthologies: An Anthology of Recent Serbian Poetry: The Nineties, The 20th Century (2005), Place We Love. An Anthology of Contemporary Serbian Poetry 1945-2006. (2006, 2011; in English), The World around Us. An Anthology of Contemporary Serbian Stories (2009).
The essays treat Serbian literature of the 20th century and poetic issues of the contemporary literature.
His poems and essays are translated to English, French, Russian, Italian, German, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Dutch, Danish, Slovenian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Slovak, Macedonian, Greek.
Books of selected poems by Gojko Božović have been published in Russia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Croatia.
He received the awards „Dušan Matić“, „Brana Cvetković“, „Djura Jakšić“, „Branko Ćopić“, „Europa Giovani International Poetry Prize“ (Italy), „Petar Kočić“ and „Gračanica Charter“ for poetry.
He received „Borislav Pekić Fund Award“ for essays.
He is founder and Editor-in-Chief Arhipelag Publishing (Belgrade, 2007) and Belgrade Festival of European Literature (Belgrade, 2012).
Vice President of Serbian PEN Center.
He lives in Belgrade (Serbia).
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