Dimana Ivanova
SUNFLOWER
She cameand grew in me
as a flower.
Who was she?
A rose?
No, a sunflower she was.
As if from a picture of V. van Gogh –
taken – colorful and smiley,
passionate and sweet.
What Love is made for –
to take or give?
Oh, delicate decoration
and secessionist motive.
She came and grew in me
as a flower
that I will nourish
day and night
with water, tears, light
of my soul – oh, Love!
You are a divine gift
that I want to give
to You…
delicate decoration
and secessionist motive.
The Butterfly
She is tenderand fragile
as a vase of Czech porcelain
sad and sensitive
spontaneous
she never says the truth
not because she doesn’t want to,
but because she doesn’t know it
she flies without aim
up the ruined Palace of Zichy
hurt butterfly
lost in the melancholy of the city
tired
she continues to fly
without aim.
She is a big colourful butterfly
with small grey blind eyes
which express eroticism and death.
I am confused,
but I’m raising my hand to catch her.
But she turned into
a big black bat
bit my heart
and spat it out.
Half a Boat
For the first time in my lifeI am not feeling at home here.
For the first time in my life
Prague is so sad with grief.
I am walking on the streets,
far away from my desires
to hug you
and kiss you.
To melt you!
I am walking.
Copyright © 2014 Dimana Ivanova
Dimana
Ivanova (PhD.) was born in Varna, Republic Bulgaria, in 1979. She earned
her Masters in Slavonic philology at the University of Kliment Ochridski
in Sofia with a minor in French philology. Her translations have been
published in the literary magazines: Panorama, Homo Bohemicus and an
Anthology of Young Czech Authors translated by young Bulgarian
translators (2008). She is also the translator of several books from the
Czech and Slovakian language. In 2006, she started her doctoral studies
in Comparative literature at the University of Charles in Prague. She is
also author of a number of critical studies published in Bulgarian,
Czech and Hungarian conference proceedings. Since 2008, she has also
been a regular author of the Czech electronic newspaper
www.iliteratura.cz. In the same year, she was also awarded a scholarship
for a foreign doctoral student in Slovakia and began research at the
Slovak Academy of Sciences. Her doctoral dissertation is about the
comparative aspects of Czech decadent poetry and has been successfully
defended in the year of 2011 at the Charles University of Prague. She is
the author of the poetry book "Invitation for a Father" (Ergo, 2012).
Her poems have been translated into English, Czech, Slovak, Spanish and
Macedonian. She is currently working as a teacher of French, Arts and
culture at a high school in Slovakia and is on the editorial board of the
newspaper Sanarodnik in Bratislava. She is also a member of the
Czech alliance of journalists and the Czech alliance of translators.
Her personal web-page is:
www.dimanaivanova.com