Poems by Alexander Shurbanov 

ПОЩАЛЬОНИ
 
Писмата,
които си разменят котките,
ние пренасяме
по връхните си дрехи.
Едно отъркване,
едно подушване –
и съобщението е получено.
Разбира се
по щръкването на опашката.
Никой не е поискал
съгласието ни.
Мислим,
че сме им господари,
а ни използват
като пощальони.
За всичко друго
се справят и без нас.
Намигат си
зад гърбовете ни.
Не ни ценят
особено високо.

 
Postboys
 
The letters
cats exchange
we have to carry
on our overcoats.
A light brush against you,
a quick sniff –
and the message
has been received.
You can tell 
by the tilt of the tail.
No one has asked you
for your consent.
We assume
we are the masters,
but they employ us
as mere postboys.
Everything else
they can manage without us.
They exchange sly winks
behind our backs.
We are not
thought much of.

 
С ДЪРВЕТАТА СЪМ В МИР.

Идвам при тях
след всяка битка
като при съюзници,
които няма да ме предадат.
Те ме посрещат неизменно с птици.
От мен не искат нищо.
Обичта им е
братска –
непитаща и мълчалива.
Не помня
да съм я заслужил с нещо.

 
I Am At Peace With Trees.

After a battle’s over,
I come back to them
as to allies,
who will not let me down.
And they invariably greet me with birdsong.
The trees expect nothing from me.
Their love is brotherly,
silent and undemanding.
I don’t recall doing anything
that might deserve it.

Alexander Shurbanov (Sofia. 1941) is the author of eighteen books of poetry and essays. Anthologies of his poems translated into other languages have been published in U.S.A., Italy, Spain and Northern Macedonia. Shurbanov is Professor Emeritus of Sofia University, where he taught English literature for over four decades. He is the author of critical studies on Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Metaphysical poets. Among his many verse translations into Bulgarian are Shakespeare’s great tragedies, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Dylan Thomas’s poetry and a representative anthology of the lyrical poems of over seventy English-language authors from the fourteenth century to the present day, which appeared last year. Shurbanov is the winner of prestigious awards at home and abroad.

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