Daily Lament

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How hard it is not to be strong,
How hard it is to be alone,
And to be old, yet to be young!

And to be weak, and powerless,
Alone, with no one anywhere,
Dissatisfied, and desperate.

And trudge bleak highways endlessly,
And to be trampled in the mud,
With no star shining in the sky.

Without your star of destiny
To play its twinklings on your crib
With rainbows and false prophecies.

– Oh God, oh God, remember all
The glittering fair promises
With which you have afflicted me.

Oh God, oh God, remember all
The great loves, the great victories,
The wreaths of laurel and the gifts.

And know you have a son who walks
The weary valleys of the world
Among sharp thorns, and rocks and stones,

Through unkindness and unconcern,
With his feet bloodied under him,
And with his heart an open wound.

His bones are full of weariness,
His soul is ill at ease and sad,
And he's neglected and alone,

And sisterless, and brotherless,
and fatherless, and motherless,
With no one dear, and no close friend,

And he has no-one anywhere
Except thorn twigs to pierce his heart
And fire blazing from his palms.

Lonely and utterly alone
Under the hemmed in vault of blue,
On dark horizons of high seas.

Whom can he tell his troubles to
When no-one’s there to hear hues call,
not even brother wanderers.

Oh God, you sear your burning word
Too hugely through this narrow throat
And throttle it inside my cry.

And utterance is a burning stake,
Though I must yell it out, I must,
Or, like a kindled log, burn out.

Just let me be a bonfire on
A hill, just one breath in the fire,
If not a scream hurled from the roofs.

Oh God, let it be over with,
This miserable wandering
Under a vault as deaf as stone.

Because I crave a powerful word,
Because I crave an answering voice,
Someone to love, or holy death.

For bitter is the wormwood wreath
And deadly dark the poison cup,
So burn me, blazing summer noon.

For I am sick of being weak,
And sick of being all alone
(seeing I could be hale and strong)

And seeing that I could be loved),
But I am sick, sickest of all
To be so old, yet still be young!


(Translated by Richard Burns 
and Daša Marić) 



Svakidašnja jadikovka


Kako je teško biti slab,
kako je teško biti sam,
i biti star, a biti mlad!

I biti slab, i nemoćan,
i sam bez igdje ikoga,
i nemiran, i očajan.

I gaziti po cestama,
i biti gažen u blatu,
bez sjaja zvijezde na nebu.

Bez sjaja zvijezde udesa
što sijaše nad kolijevkom
sa dugama i varkama.

-- O Bože, Bože, sjeti se
svih obećanja blistavih
što si ih meni zadao.

O Bože, Bože, sjeti se
i ljubavi, i pobjede
i lovora i darova.

I znaj da Sin tvoj putuje
dolinom svijeta turobnom
po trnju i po kamenju,

od nemila do nedraga,
i noge su mu krvave,
i srce mu je ranjeno.

I kosti su mu umorne,
i duša mu je žalosna,
i on je sam i zapušten.

I nema sestre ni brata,
i nema oca ni majke,
i nema drage ni druga.

I nema nigdje nikoga
do igle drača u srcu
i plamena na rukama.

I sam i samcat putuje
pod zatvorenom plaveti,
pred zamračenom pučinom,

i komu da se potuži?
Ta njega nitko ne sluša,
ni braća koja lutaju.

O Bože, žeže tvoja riječ
i tijesno joj je u grlu,
i željna je da zavapi.

Ta besjeda je lomača
i dužan sam je viknuti,
ili ću glavnjom planuti.

Pa nek sam krijes na brdima,
pa nek sam dah u plamenu,
kad nisam krik sa krovova!

O Bože, tek da dovrši
pečalno ovo lutanje
pod svodom koji ne čuje.

Jer meni treba moćna riječ,
jer meni treba odgovor,
i ljubav, ili sveta smrt.

Gorak je vijenac pelina,
mračan je kalež otrova,
ja vapim žarki ilinštak.

Jer mi je mučno biti slab,
jer mi je mučno biti sam
(kada bih mogao biti jak,

kada bih mogao biti drag),
no mučno je, najmučnije
biti već star, a tako mlad!

Vinko Kalinić

Urednik

„A što bih jedino potomcima htio namrijeti u baštinu - bila bi: VEDRINA. Kristalna kocka vedrine . . .“ Tin Ujević

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