my grandmother's youngest brother
long lay face-down in the hay
before they discovered
his young corpse
when the walnuts peered out of their green pods
he gathered their wrinkly heads
cracked them bare then ground them
the sunday gibanica cake smelled
of homecoming
in the early evening they put
a bullet to his dome
dragging him back down
to the center of the earth
adders kept vigil over him
like points of a compass
so quartering the death
that slept in him
By Monika Herceg
Translated by Marina Veverec
Poem from Monika Herceg’s Initial Coordinates, Sandorf Passage, 2022.
Monika Herceg is a Croatian poet, a physics student, and an editor at the Fraktura publishing house as well as at the Croatian journal Poezija, published by the Croatian Writers’ Society. She is the author of three poetry collections, including the widely acclaimed Početne koordinate (2018), Lovostaj (2019) and Vrijeme prije jezika (2020). She has received more than ten national prizes, most notably the Goran for Young Poets and the Fran Galovać Prize. Most recently, her play Gdje se kupuju nježnosti was awarded by the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. Her poems, plays, and short stories have been translated into more than fifteen languages, including English, French, Italian, Greek and German. She has recently been announced the European Poet of Freedom 2024.
Marina Veverec studied literary translation at the University of Zadar, Croatia, and is also an alumnus of the BCLT Summer School. Her translations have appeared in Denver Quarterly, Exchanges, Poetry International Web, Asymptote, VerseVille, Literary Hub and Harvard Review. In 2022, her translation of Monika Herceg’s Initial Coordinates was published by Sandorf Passage. She lives in Zadar where she co-organizes the LITaf Literary Festival and holds the role of a language editor at the Journal of Literature, Culture and Literary Translation, as well as at SPONDE. She works as a special education paraprofessional at a local elementary school.
Photo by Lisa Kalloo
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Read previous poems in the Poetry Travels series:
ON THE WAY TO THE SHOP by Marija Dejanović, translated by Vesna Maric
*** (MY LOVE, YOU SAID YOU WERE A WOLF) by Ruzanna Voskanyan, translated by Nieri Avanessian
RED ZONE by Iryna Tsilyk, translated by Vitaly Chernetsky
THE SPIDER by Danae Sioziou, translated by Panagiotis Kechagias and Mania Meziti
UNTITLED by Johanna Venho, translated by Anselm Hollo
THE KNOWLEDGE OF EVERYTHING by Eleni Cay, translated by the Author
ALIBI by Ewa Brzoza Birk, translated by Anna Blasiak
PATIENCE by Ziba Kirbassi, translated by Stephen Watts
HARLEQUIN by Arjola Zadrima, translated by Vlora Konushevci
SIRENS by Victoria Amelina, translated by Anatoly Kudryavitsky
JOB: A WOMAN by Dominika Lewicka-Klucznik, translated by Anna Blasiak
BAGS by Blerina Rogova Gaxha, translated by Vlora Konushevci
TONGUEFISH by Yolanda Castaño, translated by Keith Payne
WHAT DO YOU NEED by Friederike Mayröcker, translated by Christina Daub
A WORK OF BIOGRAPHY by Max Jacob, translated by Ian Seed
UNTITLED POEM by Ivano Fermini, translated by Ian Seed
AGAINST TRAVEL. FOR DANA by Rachel Levitsky
LIGHT by Vasyl Makhno, translated by Olena Jennings
A MESSAGE FROM THE ISLE OF WIGHT by Wioletta Greg, translated by Maria Jastrzębska and Anna Blasiak
HOME by Nataša Sardžoska, translated by the Author
ONLY THE BEGINNING COUNTS (4) by Jan Baeke, translated by Antoinette Fawcett
*** (RABID WINDS) by Gerður Kristný, translated by Rory McTurk
ANSWER TO THE PRAYERS by Vainius Bakas, translated by Kerry Shawn Keys
AGGRESSOR’S MONOLOGUE by Artūras Valionis, translated by Jura Avizienis
THAT’S ALL by Jurgita Jasponytė, translated by Jura Avizienis
UNTITLED by Linas Umbrasas, translated by Audra Skukauskaitė
FIRST SPRING OF THE WAR by Vytautas Kaziela, translated by Jura Avizienis
A LETTER TO A CHILD by Lina Buidavičiutė, translated by Ada Valaitis
UNTITLED by Aneta Kamińska, translated by Anna Blasiak
TWO LYRICS OF LOVE AND MEMORY by Lina Kostenko, translated by Stephen Komarnyckyj
CROW STUDY by Yuri Andrukhovych, translated by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin
UNTITLED POEM by Serhiy Zhadan, translated by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin
UNTITLED POEM by Ludmila Khersonsky, translated by Maya Chhabra
UNTITLED POEM by Iryna Vikyrchak
From THE ANDROMEDA NEBULA by Anna Gréki, translated by Souheila Haïmiche and Cristina Viti
TEAPOT by Nurduran Duman, translated by Andrew Wessels
IT’S COMING AGAIN by Michael Strunge, translated by Paul Russell Garrett
REPORT FROM ANOTHER CITY by Marcin Niewirowicz, translated by the Author
INTERIOR by Ana Blandiana, translated by Paul Scott Derrick and Viorica Patea
THIS IS LOVE by Joanna Fligiel, translated by Anna Blasiak
REVELATION IN H&M by Menno Wigman, translated by David Colmer
*** (I WANT TO FOLD THIS DAY) by Inga Pizāne, translated by Jayde Will
THE SIEGE by Marcin Świetlicki, translated by Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese
FISH by Jana Putrle Srdić, translated by Barbara Jurša
THE WELL by Maarja Pärtna, translated by Jayde Will
THE SHADOW by Pentti Saarikoski, translated by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah
A FAREWELL TO MY DEAD CLASS by Irit Amiel, translated by Anna Blasiak and Marta Dziurosz
THE GIRLS IN BERGEN-BELSEN by Nora Gomringer, translated by Annie Rutherford
DECEMBER, by Jaume Subirana, translated by Christopher Whyte
ROSE RED, by Ulrike Almut Sandig, translated by Karen Leeder
*** (I D[R]IPPED MY PEN…) by Mario Martín Gijón, translated by Terence Dooley
WHAT COMES by Magda Cârneci, translated by Adam J. Sorkin and Mădălina Bănucu
TRANSLATION by Justyna Bargielska, translated by Maria Jastrzębska
*** (MY EYES, DENSE NIGHT…) by Gëzim Hajdari, translated by Ian Seed