Razglednicas
1.
From broad Bulgaria, while the roll of cannon blasts
pounds the mountain range, then hesitates and is lost,
men, animals, farm wagons and thoughts are piled high,
the neighing road startled, the maned sky running wild.
You are perpetual in me and this propelling turmoil.
Deep in my consciousness you shine forever immobile
and silent, as the angel when it wonders at destruction,
or a beetle, burrowed in the hollow of a brittle tree.
August 30, 1944
In the mountains
2.
Nine kilometers from here the haystacks
are burning and the dwellings drop,
and lingering at the meadows' edge, silent
frightened peasants smoke their pipes.
But here the water still ripples-a tiny
shepherd girl steps into the pond
and her wavy flock of sheep dips toward
the water to drink the clouds.
October
6, 1944
Cservenka
3.
Blood-thick saliva flows from the oxen mouths,
and all the people are pissing blood.
My reeking regiment, a wild-knotted writhing.
Above us blows abominable death.
October
24, 1944
Mohacs
