Mak Dizdar has a close affinity with Homer’s Odyssey. Mak poignantly reconstructs the Odyssey into a modern, existential verse. The voice in Mak's poetry is always Odysseus’ voice. Unless one recognizes this relation as primary, Mak’s work cannot be fully appreciated.
Here is a poem from the Blue Violet River collection in preparation for printing, translated by Keith Doubt and Bojana Vuković Drndić in collaboration with Wayles Browne, Sandra Zlotrg, and Sophia Reutter (Sarajevo: Buybook).
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NEIZVJESNOST
Od Dalekih paklenih vrata do Sunca od zlata
Od hladne zemlje Kimera do bezdna himera
Od Čarobne sokolice do Tajne ptice
Od onog neba visokog do vode duboke
Od one što razdire do ove što pije
Od onih što u pijevu ubiše se u gnjevu
Do ostavljenih kiklopa i njinih stopa
Između nedohoda i nedođina
Ovu bol koja luta što ne proguta
Šta čeka ta neman kad ništa više nemam
Do duge moje tuge i teške šutnje
Od srebrne zvijezde do praznine
Od toga tvoga nemila do toga moga
Nedraga |
UNCERTAINTY
From the far hellish gates to the sun of gold
From the cold earth of Chimera to the abyss of chimeras
From the magical falconet to the secret bird
From the high sky To the deep water
From the one that tears apart to the one that drinks
From those that in song killed themselves in anger
To the abandoned Cyclops and their footsteps
Between the pathless and never ending
This pain that wanders why doesn't it swallow
What does the monster wait for when I have nothing more
Than my long sorrow and heavy silence
From the silver star to the void
From your merciless to my
Unbeloved |
Modra rijeka is a re-writing or, perhaps better, writing-over Homer’s Odyssey. We imagine that if today Homer were to read Mak’s verses, he would smile; he would feel he had been understood and his verse was indeed timeless. Without denying Mak’s identity as a Bosnian poet and without colonizing this identity, this English translation of Modra rijeka introduces and demonstrates clearly Mak’s powerful relation to the ancient Greeks and why this relation is not just a compelling one, but an essential one for appreciating his work in the wider context of world literature.
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