{"id":103231,"date":"2024-06-28T16:15:23","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T14:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/reading-room\/poetry-shelf\/%d0%b7%d0%b0%d0%b3%d0%bb%d0%b5%d0%b4%d0%b0%d0%bd-%d0%b2%d0%be-%d0%be%d0%ba%d0%b5%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%be%d1%82\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T12:08:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T11:08:20","slug":"gazing-at-the-ocean","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/reading-room\/poetry-shelf\/gazing-at-the-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"Gazing at the Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1>\n\t\t\tGazing at the Ocean\t<\/h1>\n\tA solitary man gazing at the ocean,<br \/>\na solitary man gazing at the waves of the ocean,<br \/>\nstands motionless a long time on the shore<br \/>\nas if perusing the fate of his people.<br \/>\nThe man does not notice that time is passing,<br \/>\nthat noon was long ago,<br \/>\nthat the sun is skipping across the ripples of the water<br \/>\nlike an immense wounded red gull,<br \/>\nand that soon everywhere<br \/>\nan endless African night will descend.\nThe man stands motionless like a pillar of sorrow.<br \/>\nThe ocean is immense; the man, small.\nA small solitary man gazing at the waves of the ocean<br \/>\nstands on the shore and in his thoughts is calling<br \/>\nto all the galleys of his unknown ancestors<br \/>\nwho sailed away on a journey centuries ago<br \/>\nto an uncertain, unknown Tomorrow.<br \/>\nThe man stands there and does not notice<br \/>\nthat the endless African night has already folded itself in its wings,<br \/>\nand all is wrapped in immense black Nothingness-<br \/>\nland and sky and water.<br \/>\nThe man stands there tirelessly peering even further into the distance.<br \/>\nAll at once the immense black Nothingness seems to move,<br \/>\nseems to be coming to life.<br \/>\nEmerging from its depths<br \/>\nare all the galleys that sailed away long ago,<br \/>\nall the young men and women carried off or drowned centuries ago,<br \/>\nand slowly but surely they are approaching, rowing to the shore,<br \/>\nwhose limit cannot be seen in the darkness.<br \/>\nBut the man on the shore senses them<br \/>\nand for a long time is waving at them,<br \/>\ncalling to them,<br \/>\nshouting above the ocean&#8217;s terrible voice.<br \/>\nAnd here they are-arriving,<br \/>\nalready disembarking on the shore,<br \/>\ncarrying in their hands their heavy fate, never fully told,<br \/>\ntheir unwritten history.<br \/>\nThe man on the shore is leaping for joy,<br \/>\nhugging them all, kissing them all,<br \/>\nuntil he unnoticeably disappears, is lost among them.<br \/>\nThe man merges with the immense mass,<br \/>\nthe immense mass merges with the man.\n<p>. . . . . . . . . . . .<\/p>\nNight has long since passed;<br \/>\nabove the ocean shore the sun is rising again,<br \/>\nruddied with joy and sorrow.\nBut tirelessly the man stands watching the waves of the ocean.<br \/>\nThe man is immense; the ocean, small.\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/display-case\/\">Aco \u0160opov<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/reading-room\/poetry-shelf\/the-song-of-the-black-woman-content\/\"><i>The Song of the Black Woman<\/i><\/a>, 1976<br \/>\nTranslated from the Macedonian by Christina E. Kramer and Rawley Grau,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/reading-room\/poetry-shelf\/the-long-coming-of-the-fire-content\/\"><em>The Long Coming of the Fire<\/em><\/a>, Dallas, Deep Vellum, 2023.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gazing at the Ocean A solitary man gazing at the ocean, a solitary man gazing at the waves of the ocean, stands motionless a long time on the shore as if perusing the fate of his people. The man does not notice that time is passing, that noon was long ago, that the sun is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":98423,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-103231","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103231"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103625,"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103231\/revisions\/103625"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/98423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}