Branko Cvetkoski

Branko Cvetkoski Poems

Branko Cvetkoski Biography

Branko Cvetkoski was born on 21st June 1954 in the village of Slatino, near Ohrid. He is a poet, literary critic, publicist and a translator. He graduated from the Faculty of Philology, Sts. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje and thereafter worked as a journalist at the Nova Makedonija Daily. During the 1990s, he was editor and editor-in-chief at Kultura Publishing House, secretary of the Macedonian Writers’ Association, president of the Ratsin Meetings’ Council, director of the Macedonian National Theater, editor-producer at the Macedonian Information Agency (MIA) and editor-in-chief at the Stremez Literary Magazine, and was one of the founders of the Balkanika Literary Foundation. In 2000, he founded and was editor-in-chief for several years at Makavej Publishing House and editor-in-chief of the Knizevno Zitie Literary Magazine.)

The Best Poem Of Branko Cvetkoski

Steps. biblical stillness

When women's genesis is appeased
When it closes in front of the sharp
And oblique view
Of the sky

I come out ashamed
Piled high with fever
Improvable
For beauty
For saintly sensibility
For warmth

I collect the hard
Sharp
Redhot verbtools
I dragged the horsesacks
Firmly beneath eaves I bind them
And speak not

Her warm steps
Open the gate themselves
With an unreal touch
In bubbles of a dumb whisper
I carry her out magnificent
Back into her time

In the garden.

Translated by: Antonio Taneski and Graham Reid

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