Anthology of Macedonian P.E.N. Poets

ISBN 9989-928-22-3

Radovan Pavlovski

Road to the Mountain

I’ll find the thunder’s red stone
O dried herbs
I’ll roll you in a cigarette
and light it with lightning
The heavenly bird gives me a bad sign
Don’t drink night water
my barefoot horse
you won’t carry me home
They buried a magic in the deep walls of my house
And underground wind cut my legs
I’ll lie in the hill’s starry gardens
on a bed of roses
Light a candle on my forehead
and let the hail break me
I was ready to grow roots
but my mole came
You’ll die from the burden my barefoot horse
Cattle fence my way
Lightning burns the sky
Fly into my head weeping stones
I can’t reach home even by cockcrow.

Translated by Zoran Ančevski and Bryce Conrad