She came and 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
tender and 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 life I 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.
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