Tomica Bajsić, Postkolonijalna pjesma (English translation) скачать в хорошем качестве

Tomica Bajsić, Postkolonijalna pjesma (English translation)

Poetry reading session with LYRIKLINE Coordinator for UK SJ Fowler AND Croatian poets in Cafe u dvoristu 4. 9. 2014. POSTCOLONIAL POEM The lions at Trafalgar Square in London, in quartier Montparnasse and all over Paris, lions at the tomb of King Richard in the Rouen Cathedral, the Tiergarten park and the Museum Island in Berlin. They guard the Chain Bridge in Budapest, the entrance to the Royal Palace of Brussels; slumber at the foot of the Columbus monument in Barcelona, daydream at the Marquise Pombala square in Lisbon. Long ago their gaze of stone escorted the grand ships of East - India Company out of Port of Amsterdam. We have more of them here than in Africa and India. The capitals of the former European Empires are not adorned with dolphins or birds, but lions, whose strength is in their loneliness. One harsh winter as a twelve year old I went ice skating in park near our ZOO. On the frozen lake no one but me. Sliding under one of the bridges I felt the presence of a lion. Through the snow frosted trees I could barely see the winter’s den but the lion’s roar frightened me and made me return to where I started. But when it seems that they see you, you're wrong, lions are actually looking straight through your bones, through the walls, bars and trees, across the lake where I skated and all the way over the Roman Colosseum towards the wilderness carved deeply into their memory, their gaze steadfastly rooted to the grasslands of Africa before the colonies. translated by the Author and Gabeba Baderoon