Poems by Nenad Trajković

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Translated by Danijela Trajković

 

 Marketing Fraud

 

 it’s good that there are commercials

about great new things

where your consciousness travels to

removed from the courage of the decision

somebody else makes your decision

and tells you to believe in every word

which is paid per second for the duration

 

it’s good that there are commercials

how to know what to buy

even when you do not buy anything

 

because the beginning of all the beginnings

it’s based on lies


  

Philosophy Lessons

 

I have not told you about the world in the way

we have been taught about it

nor as seen by the eyes of others

everything loses meaning as the time passes

because other people’s lie is unsustainable

for a higher level of knowledge

even if we call it the truth

how to explain the notion of axiom essence

 

you remember your enthusiasm when

I introduced you to the first wise person[1]

you told me the ancient world was not dead

you see I had to notice the majority

who have forgotten Aesop

in this fast and frantic time

forgotten New Testament

and uses the quotations

for the foundation of their wise books

 

I told you everything spreads over

as large as we choose alone

a path from you to me is not of the same length

as the path from me to you

none of us will ever measure that with certainty

 

so your town is lighter than mine

although we live in the same town

it has nothing to do with my periphery

and your center

perhaps has to do more with the times

of nights out

a daily carnival of masks

has survived for centuries

you do not realize it

but I’m going to tell you about one day

 

you know the day

when the company your mother

was working there went bankrupt

you were saying it would be

a half lesser of good things at home

I wanted to tell you that the value of all was fictitious

and watching the tear on your cheek

I was pretty sure

weight can not be determined

but still I only kept silent beside you

for a while

as doing something

appropriate and meant

 [1] celebrities who write the fairy-tale stuff


 

A View From Two Rooms

 

on your relaxing sofa

I saw some drawings

in which one could stay forever

later few questions followed

I gave negative answers

in complete negation of everything

I managed for you to disappear

 

on my relaxing sofa

you saw the drawings with no meaning

after winning the affection

the questions were flowing out of me stereotypically

your no was giving some hope

then you said you were possessed by chaos

and that I did not even exist for you

 

like this to a nonexistent shape

you gave the formation


 

About the author:

Nenad Trajkovic (Pirot, Serbia, 1982) is a Serbian poet, essayist, literary critic and translator. He graduated from Faculty of Law, University of Kragujevac, Serbia. He has published three collections of poetry, Traces (2008), I’m Taking You to the Museum (2011), and Wind From The Tongue  (2016, for which he got The Rade Tomic Prize).  His works have been widely published and translated into English, German, French, Polish, Macedonian, Slovakian, Russian and Bulgarian. He is a founder and editor of an online international literary magazine Pisanija. He lives and works in Vranje, Southern Serbia.