Translated by Vesna Marić.
A watermelon is a fish from a garden
she said and laughed
She had a wide-brimmed straw hat
and sat at the table in the yard
Her shoulders were sprinkled with freckles
and a knife shone in her hand
We have a watermelon, but who’ll slaughter it
that’s the expression in her village
as if it’s about slicing a wound in the warmth
She said when you leave, who’ll go for walks with me
She pressed her thumb against her cheek,
her index finger on her forehead
and released a small weary sigh after work
Said I’d like to make a pumpkin pie
but I can’t eat it on my own
*
She mostly walks alone
Moves around the streets like a small flock
Her feet, like two fish
perennially in the shade and under the surface
invisible they carefully mark out
the blood flow of the world
Sugar collects in the veins on her legs
and all her shoes bother her, that’s how much she walks
*
Thorns for my Sleeping Beauty
Cherry liquor for the sweetly acidic symbiosis
And the memory of that man, poor him
who had, when he heard we shared a name
asked if we were sisters
*
The sun levels out all kinds of cruelty
makes them less horrible
__________________________________
Excerpted from Kindness Separates Night from Day by Marija Dejanović (translated by Vesna Marić). Copyright © 2023. Used with permission from Sandorf Passage.
