Little Zebras
The more I read
the more books
resemble little zebras
their spines bend under the thumb
anticipating the riders
they won't buck off.
Books worthy of the black row
are worthy of words,
those worthy of words
are worthy of the white space,
those worthy of white space
are worthy of experience
tamed for the ages
the thin gaps between lines;
without books,
no padded lining
for a winter coat.
The more I read, the less
I know about poetry . . .
The more inept hunter of little zebras I become
along the soft slopes of knees and table legs.
In the realm of the well-read,
the wise and adept
examine the zebra's teeth, measure the width of her thighs
and assess her stock,
I seek the sweep of her tail,
the play of her black and white stripes . . .
Grain of Salt
(ballad of adultery)
On a spring afternoon
leave your apartment
to seek out a lover.
Instead of heading to a coffee shop,
enter a department store to pick up
olives, Camembert cheese, shampoo
and a packet of washers
for a leaky faucet.
All morning your skirt
a cresset
heralding saints
and a whirlwind of holidays.
All afternoon and evening
your skirt, a lid
for boiling water, distilling
a grain of salt.
So much water
for a single grain.
So many washers
for just a few drops.
Oh.
Black Radish
I grate a black radish
as God grates snow,
I rub the spicy flakes
on the bamboo cutting board
they shoot onto the table,
the chairs, the kitchen floor, my hands.
I cut my finger
the whiteness
soaks up the blood.
God and I grate
in unison: He without losing
any delightful zest,
and I minus a few drops of blood
soothing a heat
I'm oblivious to.
So we grate,
He and I,
and grate one another,
until exhausted
by the same
hunger.
Outside, the blizzard
howls, with ease
and without a care,
buries our
mutual
threshold.
from Little Zebras: Selected Poems
Ana Ristović
translated from the Serbian by Steven and Maja Teref
Listen to the poems read in the original Serbian by the author:
Serbian allows the writer great freedom in word order because it has seven cases. English, on the other hand, has a sparse case system and relies more heavily on word order. Translating from Serbian into English thus calls for a more concentrated grouping of syntactic patterns to reflect the needs of the target language; the narrative in English needs to be more linear in order to render the same effect.
The challenge of translating Ana Ristović's poetry lay in deciphering the onslaught of figurative language and pronoun usage in order to reconstruct the narrative. For instance, in "Black Radish," we chose to make it clear in the first two lines that God is grating snow concurrently with the speaker grating black radishes so that the later reference to this action makes sense—in Serbian, these first two lines are not necessary.
As translators, it is difficult to maintain the balance between staying true to the poet's strangeness while making the work lucid enough for a new reader to understand and enjoy. Ristović's lyric density is like a bucking zebra and we're just trying to keep our grip.
The challenge of translating Ana Ristović's poetry lay in deciphering the onslaught of figurative language and pronoun usage in order to reconstruct the narrative. For instance, in "Black Radish," we chose to make it clear in the first two lines that God is grating snow concurrently with the speaker grating black radishes so that the later reference to this action makes sense—in Serbian, these first two lines are not necessary.
As translators, it is difficult to maintain the balance between staying true to the poet's strangeness while making the work lucid enough for a new reader to understand and enjoy. Ristović's lyric density is like a bucking zebra and we're just trying to keep our grip.
Ana Ristović is a Serbian poet who has published seven collections of poetry. Her most recent book is Meteoric Debris. She has won many awards for her work both in Serbia and Germany. She was a featured reader in Southbank Centre's Poetry Parnassus in 2012. She has read her poetry throughout Europe and Latin America.
Steven and Maja Teref are co-translators of Ana Ristović's selected poems, which will be published by Zephyr Press in 2016, and of Novica Tadić's Assembly (Host Publications, 2009). Their translations of Ristović's work have appeared in Aufgabe, Conduit, and Rhino (winner of their 2012 Translation Prize). Their translation of her poem "Circling Zero" was published in the world poetry anthology The World Record (Bloodaxe Books, 2012). Steven teaches writing and literature at Columbia College Chicago and Maja teaches English at the Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center.
