In a blessed house One enters silently With a good thought And with a cross on the forehead
In a blessed house Under the shelter of silence A celestial key-holder Prays for love
In a blessed house There is a forbidden room On the bed of silk A blessed woman sleeps
In a blessed house The century silence Hugs long With the word wisdom
In a blessed house With a candle in his hands A fairy-tales dreamer Takes a night walk
And the memories keeper With promising thoughts Opens the gates silently Of the remembered time
Translated from Macedonian by Dragi Mihajlovski
IF FATHER HAD BEEN ALIVE
If father had been alive He would have celebrated each morning the birth of the day And with tender words He would have welcomed us in the old house
If father had been alive He would have stroked our grey heads And we would have sung songs about the beauty And the rainy spring in our Fatherland
If father had been alive He would have blessed the light every morning In order not to have extinguished the fireplace Of our famous ancestors If father had been alive Before the sunset He would have hold in his hands beads In order not to have forgotten the descendants
If father had been alive He would have celebrated a hundredth year today And we would have rejoiced Our childhood memories
Translated from Macedonian by Dragi Mihajlovski
Rade Siljan (1950) – poet, essayist, literary critic, translator. He has authored twenty poetry books, as well as books of essays and literary criticism. Twenty six selections of his poetry have been published in over fifteen languages. He has compiled several anthologies of Macedonian poetry and criticism and monographs on the history of Macedonian literature. Rade Siljan is a recipient of the most important awards for poetry and criticism in Macedonia, including the state award for life’s work, as well as international poetry awards in other countries. He served as a president of the Macedonian Writers’ Association and is a member of the Macedonian Translators Association, the Macedonian PEN Centre and numerous respectable international associations. He is the founder and editor of the Matica Makedonska Publishing.