{"id":81639,"date":"2024-08-18T13:06:32","date_gmt":"2024-08-18T11:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/a%d0%ba%d0%be-%d1%82%d0%b8-%d0%bd%d0%b5%d0%b4%d0%be%d1%81%d1%82%d0%b0%d1%81%d1%83%d0%b2%d0%b0\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T19:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:13:10","slug":"if-there-isnt-enough-light-for-you","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/reading-room\/poetry-shelf\/if-there-isnt-enough-light-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"If There Isn\u2019t Enough Light for You"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\t\t\tIf There Isn’t Enough Light for You\t<\/h1>\n\tIf there isn’t enough light for you,
\ntake me.
\nThat I may be night, a night that burns away
\nto bring you day.\nAnd if there isn’t enough love for you,
\ntake me.
\nI will dig out the pupils in the eyes of the night
\nthat you mirror a star and shine.\nIf there isn’t enough hate for you,
\neven then, take me.
\nHell is weaving beneath my heart
\na hell for all eternity.\nIf there isn’t enough light for you,
\ntake me.\nBut if there isn’t enough me for you,
\nwhat am I to you?
\nExcept that I gaze at you endlessly,
\nexcept that I burn away.\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\t\t\t\"\u0422\u043e\u043b\u043a\u0443\u0432\u0430\u045a\u0435\n\t

“\u0160opov was fully aware of his responsibility as a modern Macedonian poet, crafting richly textured, complex poems in a once-suppressed language for a people whose national identity had itself only recently been officially recognized. Something of this is expressed in the poem “If There Isn’t Enough Light for You”.<\/p>\n

Read alone, it sounds like a touching love poem, a lover’s promise to do all he can to comfort and console his beloved. But when we read it in the context in which it appears in Reader of the Ashes, coming immediately after the “Lament from the Other Side of Life<\/a>” and surrounded by other poems written in response to the devastation of the Skopje earthquake, we hear the poet expressing his love to his grieving nation, promising to use all his abilities to assuage their unfathomable sorrow. The love is reciprocal”. – Rawley Grau and Christina E. Kramer in\u00a0“The Fire Is Here: The Long Journey of Aco \u0160opov<\/a>“<\/p>\n\t“Nightfall<\/a>” and “If There Isn’t Enough Light For You” recorded at Heliconian Hall, Toronto, February 14th, 2025.
\nMusic by Michael Spiroff<\/strong>
\nAna\u00efs Kelsey-Verdecchia (soprano soloist), Christopher Bagan (piano), Andrew Downing (double bass), Alison Beckwith (soprano), Anika Venkatesh (alto), Larry Beckwith (tenor), Dion Mazerolle (bass).\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore information about the concert “Zazoruva”\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t