The Diver
POETRY
by Jadranka Milenković
(to Antun Šoljan)
walking isn’t the only way
to pass distances and reach the bottom
with closed eyes I dive like an underwater secret
my hands touch round stony dreams
I squint – step into a blue-green daylight
and look for the entrance to the sunken city
secretly I come to the sea in early May;
June: father and I swim across the bay;
again alone: the shore across is seductive
eyes red with salt throughout the winter
summer, newcomers, their feet furtive
dipped like into the kraken’s gaping mouth
my dream: I grow old, a fishing net appears suddenly
a vineyard in karsts, on the shore a white house
a solid old boat on the pier
allegiance to the second element, to the scent of pines
a sinewy old age, sun on the skin, sun in the eye
knowledge of good winds, rushes of Sirocco
the departure: roaming with the meaningless name
the land: a painful body and a tired head
the fear of the mole’s dream under the broken bark
the desire to flow and shatter against rocks
an unhappy river that rolls dense mud isn’t the sea mark
I’m not in concrete squares of imprisoned water
memories: legends of sea giants
at the bottom: a story told by all words
you travel by sea with no foot trail
human void is seen only in the open sea
where others can’t tread, starry guideposts tell
call me by the sea if it has a meaning
mountains and flowers and the sun and stars and freedom and peace
names like Rain like Shadow like Hope
yet I know that walking isn’t the only way to despair
I know the water flows, stands still, rises, falls like the human
even if on the land my red eyes peer
from the dark blue depths I surface with an amphora from the golden city
(translated from the Serbian by Petar Penda)
Jadranka Milenković was born in Pula, Croatia, and now lives in Niš, Serbia. She has published three novels, a collection of poetry, and many short stories in literary journals. Her poetry in translation has appeared in the journals Fevers of the Mind and Lothlorien Poetry Journal. This poem, “The Diver,” was originally published in Serbian in Preko kolena, a collection of poems by Jadranka Milenković. The book was released in 2020 by Presing Izdavaštvo in Serbia.
Petar Penda is a professor of English and American literature at the University of Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as a literary critic and translator. His translations have been published in literary journals in the United States and the United Kingdom. Penda’s poetry and flash fiction have also been published in Fevers of the Mind, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Trouvaille Review, Amphora, DarkWinter Literary Magazine, Suburban Witches, and other journals.
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