Vesna Cvjetićanin was born in Yugoslavia and never imagined leaving it. However, in the early 1990s, she found herself moving to Australia with her young family, and has been living and working in Canberra ever since. A lawyer and public servant by profession, Vesna has recently delved back into the world of poetry that she loved so much in her adolescence, and is currently writing a book of poems called “15 Lines of Thoughts”.
This poem, “Zanesena u sećanjima / Занесена у сећањима” (“Daydreaming”) was written in Serbian, Vesna’s mother tongue. See the poem in both Serbian scripts (Latin and Cyrillic), as well as an English translation (kindly provided by Vesna herself), below.
ZANESENA U SEĆANJIMA
Zanesena u sećanjima
izgubila sam osećaj
nemira, nesigurnosti,
neizvesnosti i straha
koji me ponekada
muče u svakodnevici.
Trgnuvši se, Osvetljena,
vraćam se u budnost,
i uspevši da zgrabim
zaštitnički plašt prošlosti
poslednjim tračkom Nade,
nežno, strpljivo i s ljubavlju
počinjem da utkivam u njega
divne, voljene i Svete
trenutke sadašnjosti.
ЗАНЕСЕНА У СЕЋАЊИМА
Занесена у сећањима
изгубила сам осећај
немира, несигурности,
неизвесности и страха
који ме понекада
муче у свакодневици.
Тргнувши се, Осветљена,
врађам се у будност,
и успевши да зграбим
заштитнички плашт прошлости
последњим трачком Наде,
нежно, стрпљиво и с љубављу
почињем да уткивам у њега
дивне, вољене и Свете
тренутке садашњости.
DAYDREAMING
Daydreaming, overcome by memories,
I have lost the feelings of
angst, insecurity,
uncertainty and fear
that sometimes
haunt me while awake.
Suddenly, startled,
I return to wakefulness,
and with a last glimmer of Hope,
I snatch
the protective cloak of my past,
and gently, patiently, with love,
begin to weave into it
the wonderful, beloved and Holy
moments of the present.
© Vesna Cvjetićanin, 2017
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