Opsednuti grad
Vergilije, IV bukolika
„I biće nanovo poslat pod Troju veliki Ahil“,
I biće nanovo pronađena Troja
Na svakom mestu na kome se
Veliki Ahil pretvarao
U dete svoga gneva,
U roditelja svoje mahnitosti.
I biće ponovo skovano oružje,
Blesnuće svet na jutru štita,
Nemo gvožđe progovoriće na trgovima,
I biće nanovo gradovi utvrđeni opsadom,
U opsednutim gradovima menjaće se
Dan za noć, i dani za godine,
Kraljevstva za pokornost,
I biće ponovo srušeni bedemi,
Da bismo se, najzad, vratili kući,
Među nepoznate ukućane,
Da bi se opet podigao opsednuti grad.
Besieged City
Virgil, Eclogue IV
“And once again great Achilles to Troy shall be sent,”
And once again Troy shall be discovered
In every place where
Great Achilles turned
Into the child of his anger,
Into the parent of his madness.
And once again arms shall be forged,
The world shall shine in the shield’s morning,
Mute iron shall begin to speak in the squares,
And once again shall cities be besieged,
In the besieged cities one shall exchange
Days for nights, and days for years,
Kingdoms for submissiveness,
And once again walls shall be torn down,
So that we can, finally, return home,
Among the unknown household members,
So that the besieged city be built once again.
Translated: Dragan Purešić
Gojko Božović
Opsednuti grad (Besieged City)
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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