GJEKE  MARINAJ

Μετάφραση: Ιωσήφ βεντούρας

© Poeticanet 

 

 

 

A moment of terror

The upper teeth of the sky
Are just as dangerous
As the lower teeth of the earth

Between them

I know I will be chewed up in the end.

But I don’ t know what to hope for:
To be swallowed in
Or to be spat out
Life- these dreadful jaws that own us

Στιγμιότυπο τρόμου

Ο ουρανός είναι η άνω γνάθος
επικίνδυνη
όπως και η κάτω της γης

Ανάμεσα τους γνωρίζω πως στο τέλος θα συνθλιβώ.

Το ερώτημα είναι τι να ελπίζω
να με καταπιούν ή
να με φτύσουν
Ζωή- αυτά τα τρομερά σαγόνια που μας απειλούν

 

Where Can I find the Spirit of the Poet?

It turned to a heart in my skeleton
(the dead told me)
It turned to a numbness in my pain
(the wounded told me)
It turned to a touch at my departure
(the beautiful one told me)
It turned to the banked embers of my fire
(poetry told me)

Where do I find the spirit of the poet?
His spirit I can never know
But I saw his body thrown down ,
impaled in a pit of meat hooks
(said the truth)

 

Που μπορώ να βρω την ψυχή του ποιητή?

Άλλαξε κι έγινε μια καρδιά στον σκελετό μου
(είπε ο νεκρός)
Άλλαξε κι έγινε ένα μούδιασμα στον πόνο μου
(είπε ο λαβωμένος)
Άλλαξε κι έγινε ένα άγγιγμα όταν αναχωρούσα
(είπε μια όμορφη)
Άλλαξε κι έγινε η χόβολη της φωτιάς μου
(είπε η ποίηση)

Που θα βρω λοιπόν την ψυχή του ποιητή?
την ψυχή που ποτέ δεν θα γνωρίσω
Είδα ωστόσο το σώμα του πεσμένο σε λάκκο,
καρφωμένο σε γάντζους όπως κρεμούν το κρέας
(είπε η αλήθεια)

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Gjekë Marinaj 

Born in 1965 in the Malësi e Madhe District of northern Albania is an Albanian–American poet, writer, translator and literary critic who is also known as the founder of a form of arts criticism known as Protonism Theory. Currently living in the United States, he was the first president of the Society of Albanian-American Writers, established in 2001 and has published several books of poetry, prose and literary criticism. In 2008, Marinaj was awarded the Pjetër Arbnori Prize for literature by QNK, part of the Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, In 2021, he was the recipient of South Korea's Changwon KC International Literary Prize.His writing and peacemaking work have received acclaim and many other honors in Albania and elsewhere in Europe, as well as in the U.S. and Asia. 
(Wikipedia)

He keeps the chair of Doctoral Dissertation Commitees for PhD Candidates at International Universities. He is the director of Mundus Artium journal of the University of Texas at Dallas.