{"id":103215,"date":"2024-08-18T15:09:43","date_gmt":"2024-08-18T13:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/reading-room\/poetry-shelf\/%d0%b6%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%b0-%d0%b2%d0%be-%d0%b8%d0%b2%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%bd%d0%b0%d0%b6%d0%be%d1%82\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T12:07:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T11:07:06","slug":"woman-in-the-rainy-season","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/reading-room\/poetry-shelf\/woman-in-the-rainy-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman in the Rainy Season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

\n\t\t\tWoman in the Rainy Season\t<\/h1>\n\tThe cup of the night overflows. Torrential rains pour down.
\nNight and rain. Rain and night. The hivernage.
\nAnd a woman alone in the night and the downpour.
\nShe moves to the distant drumming of the tom-toms,
\nwrithing snakelike in the rain
\nas if in the embrace of a man.
\nA woman in the old squeaky cart of the night,
\na woman awakened by the roar of the rain,
\na woman driven mad with joy,
\ndancing in the night in the rain, alone and naked.\nAnd the rain comes down like healing for heavy wounds,
\nlike freedom from dark forces and passions,
\nit comes down like murmurings, like caresses: Arise! Grow!
\nThe rain comes down and this hivernage will never end
\nso long as the woman dances snakelike in the rain,
\nwrithing as if in the embrace of a man.
\nThe rain comes down and weaves its strange tales,
\nlike the birth and the wail of your first-born child.\n\tAco \u0160opov<\/a>, The Song of the Black Woman<\/i><\/a>, 1976
\nTranslated from the Macedonian by Christina E. Kramer and Rawley Grau,\u00a0The Long Coming of the Fire<\/em><\/a>, Dallas, Deep Vellum, 2023.\n\t

Listen to the poem in Macedonian<\/p>\n\t\t