Balcony

Balcony

Haiku, Serbian

Haiku--translations into English

From the introduction: "Dimitar Anakiev is among the best of the Balkan poets, and due to sensitive translation, among the best of haiku poets in English. This collection reflects the maturity and confidence of a decades-long exploration of the form and its intentions. Stillness and poise at one stroke—each haiku locating a fresh moment of perception. It is difficult to know the unreachable, and Dimitar sensitively places us on this precipice of knowing both self and world, as “a small cloud slowly embraces the moon,” or as “autumn rain from which you cannot escape,” or in the signature haiku, from “the balcony unreachable.” Through these poems, I remember myself, and gain a strong sense of the poet in his life and country, meeting him again in this new era. A beautiful, quiet tragedy of life unfolds—while we cannot rationally know the unknowable, Dimitar evokes it, sculpted from space. There is a sense of community and care expressed in these haiku. They heal, in that across this space we one day may embrace, from this very balcony."

– Richard Gilbert, Kumamoto, Japan 11 August 2006

20 single line haiku, in the original Serbian, translated into English with assistance from Jim Kacian.

Anakiev, Dimitar

Jim Kacian Archival Library

Red Moon Press
Winchester VA

2006

Tsuneo Shibata (illustrator)

All rights reserved. This book is republished here with the kind permission of the author.

pdf

hard copy

eng

srp

book