Or see the index
Vinko Kalinić
Pola pjesme
Probudio sam se jutros s pola pjesme u glavi
pamtim, sanjao sam te – da, bile su to tvoje usne
i ruke! i nos! i uho! – i mogao bih napisati pjesmu
sasvim strašnu neku pjesmu, pristojnu i zanosnu
recimo, o čovjeku koji je umro u snu, ljubeći te
ali ne znam kako ti oči pretočiti u riječi
te strašne oči koje me uvijek iz nova prepolove
na mene koji bi umro zbog njih
i na mene koji bi umro bez njih
– oči, pred kojima ni jedna pjesma
nikada neće biti ispjevana do kraja
Komiža, 20. 11. 2010
Half a song
I woke up this morning with half a song in my head
I remember, I dreamt about you – yes, those were your lips
and hands! and nose! and ear! – and I could write a song
some absolutely dreadful song, decent and passionate
let’s say, about a man who died in his dream, while kissing you
but I don’t know how to transfuse your eyes into words,
those enticing eyes which bisect me in two all over again,
to a me that would die for them
and to a me that would die without them
– those eyes, in front of which no song
will ever be sung till the end
Translation by Darko Kotevski, Melbourne
Vinko Kalinić poetry
kempis.nl poetry magazine
More in: Archive K-L, Kalinić, Vinko
Vinko Kalinić
Ne znam odgovor
pitaš me: zašto te volim? baš tebe? meni sasvim nepoznato biće? a ne pitaš me koliko su duboke tvoje oči? i kako može živ čovjek ne osjetiti ono što u njima gori? tako svečano. i toplo.
ne znam odgovor. tek osjećam da bi se nas dvoje jako dobro razumijeli. čak i onda kada ni riječ jednu ne bi izrekli. samo da nasloniš glavu na moje grudi. netalo bi svijeta. i svega onog što grčevito skupljaju isprazni ljudi. oko čega se tuku. i za sobom vuku, ko ukleti svoje prokletstvo.
bez ičega. i sasvim goli. stajali bi nijemo. zadivljeni. u spoznanju. koliko je malo potrebno za biti sretan. i to malo, koliko je ljepše dati, no uzeti. i tako bi nestajali. ležeći jedno drugom u sjeni. šuteći. sva bi pitanja bila besmislena. i svi odgovori uzaludni. ono između nas progutalo bi sve što smo ikad bili. i što ćemo ikada biti. što je itko ikada utjelovio u riječi. dok ne bi nestali. sasvim. jedno drugom darujući, i posljednji komadić sebe.
Komiža, 18. 04. 2011
Don’t know the answer
you ask me: why I love you? yes, you? to me absolutely unknown being? but you don’t ask me how deep are those eyes of yours? and how can a living man not feel what burns inside those eyes? so festive. and warm.
I don’t know the answer. I just feel that you and I would understand each other very well. Even when we wouldn’t say one single word. just so you lean your head on my chest. the world would disappear. and all that what futile people collect frantically. things they fight for. and drag around, like damned drag their own curse.
without anything. and totally naked. we would be standing silent. amazed. in the cognition. how little is needed to be happy. and that little, how nicer is to give than to take. and that’s how we would disappear. lying in one another’s shadow. being silent. all questions would be senseless. and all answers useless. that between us would swallow everything that we’ve ever been. and what we would ever be. what has anyone ever embodied into words. until we would disappear. totally. giving each other the last particle of himself.
Translation by Darko Kotevski, Melbourne
Vinko Kalinić poetry
kempis.nl poetry magazine
More in: Archive K-L, Kalinić, Vinko
Čisti zov divljine
Ponekad imam osjećaj da sam se odavno izgubio
na ovom svijetu i da je sve krivo postavljeno:
i imena gradova, i imena ulica, i imena ljudi,
znakovi na cesti, krsni listovi i boje na zastavama.
Da smo krive lekcije učili u udžbenicima,
i profesori da su trebali biti đaci
i učiti od nas koji smo bili djeca,
a mi da smo trebali ostati onakvi
nezainteresirani za strane svijeta,
statističke podatke o ekonomskom rastu
i kada je koja bitka vođena.
Čini mi se da bi bili pametniji
s onim osmjehom dječaka koji se
nemilosrdno ceri pred kartom Svijeta
smiještajući Afriku gdje bi trebala biti
Amerika, i Europu tamo gdje je Azija.
I mudriji da je bio naš bijeg sa školskog sata,
od dosadnih formula iz fizike i kemije.
Jer – tako je to ponekad u mojoj glavi –
čini mi se kad ljudi ništa ne bi znali
o kemijskim spojevima i zakonima fizike,
još uvijek bi živjeli u špilji
i igrali se na mame i tate.
I da bi bez Dnevnika, Interneta i dnevnog tiska
više poznavali jedni druge. I kako teku suze,
i kako grmi smijeh. I srce kako se kadikad steže
mimo svih zakona, pred stvarima o kojima ljudi
najčešće i ne razmišljaju, a o kojima u udžbeniku
nije pisalo ništa.
Ponekad stvarno imam osjećaj da sam se izgubio.
I što je lijevo, učini mi se da bi trebalo biti desno,
i što je desno, da bi trebalo biti lijevo,
i ono što je gore, da bi trebalo biti dolje,
i obratno. I sve bi tako ispremještao.
Jer čini mi se ponekad, da se ljudi
i vole i mrze po inerciji i navici.
I da čine sve samo zato jer im je netko rekao
da je dobro da to čine baš tako
kako su ih naučili da čine,
a zapravo nije, jer bi moglo i drukčije.
I svašta se meni tako čini, i pričinja,
ponekad i predskazuje, pa stvarno bude onako
kao u tom predskazanju, a ne onako kako su nam rekli.
Čudne me misli spopadaju. Što sam stariji, sve to više.
I ponekad mi bude pravo žao što nikada nisam živio u špilji,
bez frižidera, mikrovalne i daljinskog upravljača.
Zamisli da svako jutro iznova moraš kresati kamen o kamen
da bi zapalio vatru, ganjati divlju svinju ili loviti ribu?
Kakve bi ti se onda misli vrzmale po glavi, i bi li tvoje ruke
imale isti osjećaj za stvari?
Dobro! – Priznajem, bilo bi to naporno. Ovako je mnogo lakše.
No, što je s osjećajem za stvari? Je li i naša glad ista
kao i ona prva? I ona vatra, kao ova mikrovalna? Grokće li ova
pitoma svinja kao i ona divlja? Ili smo se svi izgubili
među svim tim zemljama, jezicima, kulturama, tehničkim
i mentalnim pomagalima? I je li ono bilo divlje samo zato
što su nas razmazili, ili smo mi divlji kojima nije bila dovoljna
riba za ručak, pa smo sagradili brod, pa tvornicu, pa…
nacrtali Europu, Ameriku, Aziju…
– Da mi je ući u tvoju glavu, mislim da bi se osjećala ko Alisa
u zemlji čudesa! – tako mi reče jednom sestra.
I nije bila daleko!
Na ovoj planeti čudesa, da te nema,
Ljubavi moja, ne znam kud bih krenuo.
Niti što bih uopće radio?
O tome razmišljam dok gledam tvoje lice.
O kojem mi nitko nije rekao ništa,
a na kojem je zapisano ama baš sve
što je važno.
Čisti zov divljine.
Vinko Kalinić
Pure call of the wilderness
Some-time I have a feeling that I’ve lost myself a long time ago
on this world and that everything is being wrongly set:
towns names, streets names and peoples names,
signs on the roads, birth certificates and the colours of flags.
That we learned wrong subjects from the textbooks,
and that professors had to be the students
and learn from us who were the children,
and that we should have stayed in
disinterested states for the sides of the world,
for statistical data on economic growth
and when was what battle fought.
It seems to me that we would have been smarter
with that smile of the boy who
relentlessly grins in front of a world map
placing Africa where should be
America, and Europe where Asia is.
And also, if the wagging school was wiser,
than boring formulas of Physics and Chemistry.
Whereas – it’s like that sometimes in my head –
it seems to me when people wouldn’t know
anything about chemical compounds and the laws of physics,
they would still be living in the cave
and they would still be playing mums and dads.
And that without the TV news, internet and daily newspapers
they would better get to know each other. And how tears drop,
and how laughter thunder. And also how the heart sometimes squirm
past all laws, in front of things people
most often don’t think, things that
never existed in the textbooks.
Sometimes I really feel that I’ve lost myself.
And what is left, it seems to me that should be right,
and what is right, that it should be left,
and what is up, that should be down,
and vice versa. And so, I would mix up all of that.
Because it seems to me sometimes, that people
love and hate each other by inertia and habit.
And that they do everything just because someone told them
it was good to do just that
as they taught them to do,
but actually is not, because it could be otherwise.
And everything methinks so, and vice,
and sometimes predicts, and really it is exactly
as in that prophecy, and not the way they told us.
Strange thoughts seize upon me. As I got older even more.
And sometimes I’d be really sorry that I have never lived in a cave,
without refrigerator, microwave and remote control.
Imagine that every morning you have to strike the stones together
to light a fire, chase the wild boar or catch a fish?
What thoughts would you then be having in your head, and whether your hands
would have the same sense for things?
Well, OK! – I admit, it would be hard. Thus it is much easier.
But what about the sense of things? Is our hunger the same
as it was the hunger before? And that fire, is it the same as this microwave one?
Does the domestic pig grunt the same as the wild one? Or we all have got lost
among all these countries, languages, cultures, technical
and mental aid tools? And whether that was wild just because
we were spoiled, and we are wild, we who didn’t have enough
just fish for lunch, so we built a ship and factory, and so…
we just drew Europe, America, Asia…
– If I could get into your head, I think I would have felt like Alice
in Wonderland! – my sister once said to me.
And she wasn’t too far from the truth!
On this planet of wonders, if you were not here,
My love, I do not know where I would go.
Nor what would I do, anyway?
I think about it when I look at your face.
Face nobody told me anything about,
and on which is written absolutely everything
that is important.
Pure call of the wilderness
Vinko Kalinić
Translation by Darko Kotevski, Melbourne, Australia
Vinko Kalinić was born 1974 in Split, Croatia. He is a writer, journalist and human rights activist. He lives on the island of Vis. He is the editor of the internet portal My island of Vis, which is dedicated to life on the island and the Mediterranean culture. Also on facebook Vinko Kalinić daily writes his poetic diary, which tracks more than 2 300 fans.
Vinko Kalinić poetry
kempis.nl poetry magazine
More in: Archive K-L, Kalinić, Vinko
Thank you for reading Fleurs du Mal - magazine for art & literature