19 January 2014

Psalm of Despair


               by Radmila Lazic


I dwell in a land of despair
In the city of despair
Among desperate people
Myself desperate
I embrace my desperate lover
With desperate hands
Whispering desperate words
Kissing him with desperate lips.

In despair we make children
In despair we strangle them
And feed our desperate offspring
With our own despair
So that they may multiply
By giving birth to ever more desperate children
And so on.

For the God of Despair is our Lord
And his envoys of despair
With their instruments of despair
That coat our homes with despair
Drape our windows with despair
And board up our doors with it
As despair rises around us like walls.

Preaching the religion of despair
For gain and wealth
Instructing us in Holy Despair
For which we are to earn life eternal
So our dead will rise again
In despair.

The wandering lamb
That found no path or shelter
No dawn and no morning
Forever and ever --

Damn you wicked hand
That wrote this in the year 2013 of our Lord.



Trans. from Serbian by Charles Simic. NYRB 12/13/2013.








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