In My Own Accent

Katerina has taken on the challenge of translating poems from Bulgarian and publishing 365 of them on her blog during 2015! This is post number 100!

Alice

For years she’s been planning to go,
to take a look at
The House.
To sweep the yard.
To water the flowers
under the seven asphalt skies.
To crumble bread for the mourning doves.
To enter, to lock the door.
To wash the windows.
To put on the pink dress.
To stand in front of the big mirror.
What a nice dress,
says the big mirror,
not to mention the arms the neck
the eyes the cheekbones,
says the big mirror.
To enter it.

Author: Ekaterina Yosifova
Translated from Bulgarian by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer

Ekaterina Yosifova is the author of 13 books of poetry, most recently Thin Book (Zhanet 45, 2014). She has received numerous national and international literary awards, and her poetry has been translated into more than a dozen languages. She lives and works in Sofia.

Katerina has taken on the challenge of translating poems from Bulgarian and publishing 365 of them on her blog during 2015! This is post number 95!

Domesticity

We lit the lamp, closed the curtain.
The other day a man with a backpack walked by outside.
The kind who stares through windows.
But doesn’t want to be on the inside.

Author: Ekaterina Yosifova
Translated from Bulgarian by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer

Ekaterina Yosifova is the author of 13 books of poetry, most recently Thin Book (Zhanet 45, 2014). She has received numerous national and international literary awards, and her poetry has been translated into more than a dozen languages. She lives and works in Sofia.