An Anthology of Croatian Literature

Milivoj Slavicek (1929- )

Milivoj Slaviček (1929– ) One of the Krugovi poets who in the 1950s opposed the imposition of Socialist Realism and in general government constraints on literature, Slaviček has produced multiple volumes of rather compact verse. He is considered a postmodernist for his focus on alienation, literature as something less than elevated , and the dystopic nature of modern civilization. He is an active translator , and in independent Croatia he has served as ambassador to Poland. The following poems are taken from Silent Doors: Selected Poems, B. Gorjup and J. Lynes, trans. (Toronto: Exile Editions, 1988): 11, 51, 89, 107. An Anthology of Croatian Literature 244 River and I are Enemies River and I are enemies She runs her way and there’s no way I’m running her way This is essential. Absolutely essential. I am not edible. No fish And river would (could) drown me so I don’t like the river although I see in her all hidden, potent meanings we are utterly silent utterly real enemies because she runs her way and I’m not going to run like that I’m only alive to run the way the river won’t A Poem About Silent Doors A door into darkness, into fragrance, silence, chaos. A door into harmony. A door into infinity, a door into slow dying There in the walls surrounding this space. I face them choosing and going out of each and through those that remain Bit by bit or the whole way. But I stay here somewhere so I can find names and expressions, draw conclusions, dream and just be. Leaning against something invisible Again About Objects I dislike objects because they’re always falling But, on the other hand, as I’ve already said they give all they’ve got, serving us wretched, dispossessed of certain metaphysical properties their owners invented only for themselves Ah! They can be ennobled. But all that’s ephemeral And too much a “function” And on the whole I think they’re nostalgic for when their owners carried them down to their graves They were a noble part of life and death Milivoj Slaviček 245 That was our fine reciprocal show (It’s as if we feel today the need for special exaltation o you, vanished civilizations) My Ides of March “But the ancient truth is that certain secrets are not revealed to the healthy.” John Updike The healthy don’t know how (un)happy they are They don’t understand what the luxury of determinedly crossing a street, turning towards a corner and opening with your own arm the door into a pub full of people is Also, they cannot imagine the impulse to grasp that, in the best of circumstances, we’ve no more than eight months ahead of us: every hour is a panorama, painted over, full of shining dots and every perception a sensation, which it really is. The healthy innocently believe (hope) that the World belongs to them, they’re holding it in their hands and it is filled with thousands of terribly important and even urgent things In fact, they hardly think about it: it looks the way it looks to them But all this is only foam compared to a single sip of live intoxication (at the familiar bar) Others will write my memoirs ...