Nothing Lasts Forever

  

Nothing Lasts Forever




Nothing lasts forever, even the Gods have died one by one
Time has been dying, too
In some other days, memories lay dying
The years gone-by already laughing at it all
But only I still weep in my poems over you

Mornings often remind me
Of the sky in your eyes
The wild wind under your lashes
Remind me of the song etched in my soul
of July rains and wet pavements
Of the places in which I looked for your footprints
finding only traces of time
that erases everything, but the pain
Streets, cars, strangers
a movie scene, a page from a book,
lyrics from the morning radio song
And your eyes with the sky above the sunflowers
This little piece of preserved happiness while I’m thinking of you
And this thing in me that defies all deaths,

Lost kisses that will never find their way to your lips
And my mind enflamed by lust
in an already weary body
I, myself no longer understand anything
While I’m pondering the fate written in the stars
Standing on the bridge of the river that long ago stopped flowing in your memory

I would plunge
I would drown in the ocean of your chest
In the place where silences speak
Where the truth lies buried
And yet, I am alive
Reflecting on the fingers unjoined
Kept for you

All that has not been mine for a long time
Powerless to kill this pain
by silence or by words
While offering to others a fake smile
I weep in my poems
Over you

Mariana Qunbar Selma

(Translated from Serbian by Jana Begovic)

Mariana Qunbar Selma writes under the pen name SELMA. She was born in southern Serbia, the village of Medja, Leskovac on March 22, 1969, and since 1992 she has been living and working in Israel. She writes poetry, fiction and essays. In the magazine ONA [She], she has her own column under the title, “Our Voice from Jerusalem.” She has published five books, out of which four were poetry collections, and one a novel.

1. Awakening 2016, a collection of poems, Galaksija, Niš

2. Poems as Traces and Dances, 2016 a collection a poems, Galaksija Niš

3. TEMPEST (and a Breeze) 2017, a collection of poems, Nova Poetika

4. A Fistful of Darkness 2018, a collection of poems, Banatski Kulturni Centar

5. The Woman with a Chameleon Soul 2018, a novel Banatski Kulturni Centar