{"id":103657,"date":"2024-06-28T17:00:48","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T15:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/reading-room\/poetry-shelf\/%d0%b3%d0%bd%d0%b5%d0%b7%d0%b4%d0%be-%d0%b2%d0%be-%d0%b1%d1%80%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%b8%d1%82%d0%b5\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T12:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T11:29:10","slug":"a-nest-in-the-waves","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/reading-room\/poetry-shelf\/a-nest-in-the-waves\/","title":{"rendered":"A Nest in the Waves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\t\t\tA Nest in the Waves\t<\/h1>\n\tA bird from the warm southern regions,
\nexhausted from long flying and dazed by the blistering sun,
\ncircles frantically above the lake, searching a wide-branching tree
\nthat overhangs the watery mirror,
\ntrying to find her own, old, hidden nest,
\nthe only place she can rest and calm herself.\nThe bird is flying, barely circling, and does not recognize the tree.
\nThe tree has gained new life, put out new branches, and seems to cover the entire lake.
\nThousands of other birds have spent the night in its crown,
\ndisappearing with the hum of early morning.
\nBut this bird has flown here year after year,
\nflying down into her nest and not noticing
\nthat over time her strength has been failing her,
\nand that she is no longer the same bird able
\nto fly without tiring and be drunk
\non the pure air and the tree’s heady scent.\nLong does this frantic bird circle above the water,
\nabove the huge, leafy branches of the tree,
\nbeneath which the lake is rising, roiled
\nby the wind, which brings from afar ever more powerful waves.
\nTo the bird, the hump-shaped waves resemble
\nthe fine old bed she had woven in the tree,
\nand so with her last strength she dives headlong towards her nest;
\nwith a terrible whistling sound she passes through the branches,
\nstrikes the surface without a cry and disappears into the waves.\nThe tree, stunned, unfolds its branches
\nabove the furious lake,
\nas if wanting to embrace the bird
\nthat has spent her entire life in her nest
\nbut now has disappeared into the nest of the waves,
\nthe only place she could rest and calm herself.\n

Ohrid, August 1977<\/p>\n\tAco \u0160opov<\/a>, The Tree on the Hill<\/a><\/i>, 1980
\nTranslated from the Macedonian by Christina E. Kramer and Rawley Grau,\u00a0The Long Coming of the Fire<\/em><\/a>, Dallas, Deep Vellum, 2023.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Nest in the Waves A bird from the warm southern regions, exhausted from long flying and dazed by the blistering sun, circles frantically above the lake, searching a wide-branching tree that overhangs the watery mirror, trying to find her own, old, hidden nest, the only place she can rest and calm herself. The bird…<\/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-103657","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103657","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=103657"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103663,"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103657\/revisions\/103663"}],"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=103657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}