Download PDF Here 13th Anniversary
Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume One December 2022.
The real surface, poems by Ndue Ukaj.
Translated from Albanian by Edita Kuçi Ukaj.
The real surface
We are in the woods and have lost the roads.
The sky is sad and desperate.
Silhouettes of people revolve around us
They look like in a cortege
where burial their desires.
Last night you told me your dream.
You were in nightwear and sat down to an old piano.
I learned the words,
which you replaced wonderfully with your fingers play.
Your fingers are magical
and erased the memories
in my eyes swollen with longing.
You know, we were long deceived.
We believed that we were entering the forest of truth,
and we were closing the gates of fear.
But no.
In that space, someone planted bad flowers.
The ark of the overturn
I have often seen you among angels and demons,
surrounded by a false halo that called glory.
Seek the ark of salvation
a headrest for your head
and for your desires painted in freedom.
Your fate was in the hands of the sea gods,
until one day your halo overturned.
Then you cried like this sad sky,
and you turned your head back,
those sweet eyes that looked towards eternity.
And beyond the pain, you demanded a handshake
a red rose
like the universe of your eyes.
That day of drowsy feelings
you sought a return to the old stories
and through grim silence
at the crossroads of fates
you watered the flowers of evil.
What do I do on a night like this,
without the moon and a goal,
when I lay pledge the long journey through the raging roads;
where space is lacking
the word
nostalgia
and a newsroom
for absence.
Someone calls it loneliness,
someone calls it freedom.
Then beyond you, I saw a clutter of people
as they rushed towards the closed gateway.
And I caught up with you;
where the particles of memory became symphonies
in the slain conscience.
Oh, this sound lasts as long as an epoch.
© Ndue Ukaj
Ndue Ukaj was born in Kosova, in 1977 and is a writer, essayist, and literary critic. To date, he has published four poetry books, one short story collection, and two literary criticism books. He won several awards, including the national award for best book of poetry published in 2010 in Kosovo. His works have been published in distinguished international anthologies and journals, and have been translated into many languages.