{"id":81137,"date":"2024-04-09T19:48:08","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T17:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/%d0%b3%d1%80%d0%be%d0%b7%d0%be%d0%bc%d0%be%d1%80\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T18:12:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T17:12:47","slug":"horrordeath","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/reading-room\/poetry-shelf\/horrordeath\/","title":{"rendered":"Horrordeath"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\t\t\tHorrordeath\t<\/h1>\n\tHere all things are born and die on their own.
\nA great stone. A scar. A mumbled, muted word.
\nSpring is its mother and stepmother, wicked and shrewd.
\nAshes of the dream, dream of the ashes. Horrordeath.\nDroughts drink it, black rains sift it,
\ndays heap it with night, layer upon layer,
\nwhile down its hide the vertebrae stiffen
\nwith ossified shadows of raw flesh and rage.\nHere winds are whistling and dark ghosts wail,
\nhere the first crime, sin, punishment, rebuke.
\nHere sleep human and beast in one lair,
\nand the little child takes her first stumbling step.\nThe bread on it grows from a root deep and bitter,
\nso it is dry and sweet and sears like a flame.
\nSong, should some weary hermit accost you,
\naccept him as your own: he burns the same.\nO rose in the throat, snakeberry in the mouth,
\nwild itch of blood with itself contending;
\nO land of delectable, deadly poisons,
\nthe blazing boulder rolls. Burning. Burning. Burning.\nHere all things, on their own, are born and die.
\nA great stone. A scar. A mumbled, muted word.
\nSpring is its mother and stepmother, full of lies.
\nAshes of the dream, dream of the ashes. Horrordeath.\n\tAco \u0160opov<\/a>,\u00a0Reader of the Ashes<\/em><\/a>, 1970
\nTranslated from the Macedonian by Christina E. Kramer and Rawley Grau,\u00a0The Long Coming of the Fire<\/em><\/a>, Dallas, Deep Vellum, 2023.\n

The poem was also published in the\u00a0journal\u00a0Asymptote<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n\t

Listen to the poem read in original Macedonian by the actress Zorica Georgievska<\/p>\n\t\t