This is part of our special feature on Contemporary Bulgarian Literature.
…..Postcards to our future selves
…..Memories of moments from my childhood days
…..carefully sealed in the sarcophagus of
…..…………………..forlorn history
…..…………..forgotten history
…..…..forbidden history
…..history that cracks mouths in a shameful gape
…..history that hurts today
…..…………………..dubbed banished for tomorrow.
…..A little girl with red ribbons in her hair
…..jumping up and down a hopscotch
…..…………………..frozen moment
…..…………..family photo
…..…..forbidden memory
…..private memories that do not belong in history books
…..private memories that do not live public lives today
…..…………………..dubbed banished for tomorrow.
…..…..Through memory
…..…………………..we should
…..take care of our future
…..of bright stars
…..…………..not red, by any means
…..stars that line up the horizon
…..…………..of our consumer happiness.
…..…..Through memory
…..…………………..we should
…..cherish our future
…..of fabricated remembrance
…..…………..not red, by any means
…..postcards sent today
…..…………..to our lonely future selves.
…..And then
…..the seal snaps open
…..memories like marbles
…..…………………..spill
…..…………..rumble
…..…..down the stairs
…..of time
…..I can hear them today, I can see
…..their white innocent bodies
…..covering this vast western land
…..there’s space for all of them
…..…………..here
…..…………..now
…..past moments packed in small spheres
…..spill over, flood this foreign landscape
…..sink in slowly to be quick forgotten
…..in the timeless lonely desert of the future
…..…………..where
…..…………..when
…..I will be waiting for my postcards
…..…………………………………..from the past.
…..Silence
…..Strings strung tight
…..Strings loose
…..Strings broken
…..Needless drama
…..I seek music in the silence
…..…..of your eyes
…..Strings bulge incensed
…..Strings tear down their coils
…..Strings play infuriated
…..for silence never worked,
they say
…..I hear music in the silence
…..…..of your eyes
Elitza Kotzeva is a PhD candidate in English Studies with a focus on rhetoric at Washington State University. She holds graduate degrees in Slavic Studies, Local Development, and English Literature. In a previous stint as a literary translator, she resounded into English the music of Concerto for Sentence—a novel that blurs the boundaries between music and poetry composed by the prolific Bulgarian writer Emiliya Dvoryanova (Dalkey Archive Press 2015).
