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Antun Branko Simic

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The Return

You do not even sense
that I have returned and am near at hand

At night when the silent moon murmurs in your ear
know:
it is not the moon circling your house
I am wandering on the blue paths of your garden.

When walking on the road in the dead noon light
you stop,
frightened by the cry of a strange bird
know:
that was my heart’s call from the near banks

And when you see some shadow move in the twilight
from the far side of the dark, silent water
know:
I am walking, proud and exultant
as if beside you.

 

Antun Branko Simic (1898-1925) was born in Herzogovina and led a difficult life, dying of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-seven in Zagreb. Only one collection of his work was published in his lifetime, but it paved the way for much of contemporary Croatian poetry. Initially influenced by German expressionism, he quickly found his own voice. Though apparently cold and rational, his poetry is deeply passionate, and much concerned with physicality, God and death. He wrote numerous articles, polemical works and essays, and helped to found several literary magazines. Sabrana Djela (Selected Works) was published posthumously in 1960.
Courtney Angela Brkic graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1994. She studied in Zagreb, Croatia, with a Fulbright Scholarship (1995-1996) and remained in the region until 1999. She has worked as an independent translator, and is currently studying for the MFA in writing at New York University with a New York Times Fellowship.

Translated by Courtney Angela Brkic

Page(s) 159

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