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Infinitives

Infinitives

Pavle Goranović

Infinitivi

To know nothing about the day that is to come.
To be unversed in historical facts,
but, still, to know how many Montenegrins
were killed in the Balkan Wars.
To quote a lesser-known Hispano-American writer.
To talk about impostures with the ex-criminal
and about the history of art.
To score a point at an unimportant football match
in the playground of a southern suburb.
To stay home alone
at the time of flamboyant town carnivals.
To live in the suburbs,
from there to experience the Weltschmerz.
To see the singularity of Orthodox monasteries.
To offer to others altruistically
sources of personal pathos.
To have someone beside you.
All that, as well as the quotient of other nontrivial
and trivial things, probably isn’t
sufficient for salvation.

Nemati pojma o sjutrašnjici.
Ne biti upućen u istorijske činjenice,
ali, opet, znati koliko je Crnogoraca
poginulo u balkanskim i svjetskim ratovima.
Citirati malo poznatog hispanoameričkog pisca.
Razgovarati sa bivšim kriminalcem o prijevarama.
I o povijesti umjetnosti.
Dati gol na beznačajnoj utakmici
na igralištu južne periferije.
Ostati sam u kući
u vrijeme velikih gradskih maskenbala.
Živjeti u provinciji,
odatle preživljavati svjetski bol.
Vidjeti raskoš pravoslavnih manastira.
Nesebično ponuditi drugima
izvore ličnog patosa.
Imati nekog pored sebe.
Sve to, kao i količnik ostalih bitnih
i nebitnih stvari, vjerovatno nije
ni približno dovoljno za spasenje.

NOTE: This poem first appeared in Montenegrin in the book Kako Mirišu Knjige.

Aleksandra Batrićević


NOTE: This poem first appeared in the book Reading of Silence (Blesok).

Translation