and do not look back.<\/p>\nThere is no better place to tame you than this,
\nthan these nine gardens, nine gardens that live
\non your lush vegetation;
\nthan these nine gorges, nine throats that sing
\nthe springtime of your songs.
\nDescend into your darkness, blood,\n
and do not say to me:<\/p>\nListen to the thunder in the distance, Listen to the poem “Scar” in Macedonian<\/p>\n\t\t
\nlisten to the roaring of the forests-
\nhorses are coming on a road of stars and moonlight,
\nhorses, horses, horses are coming,
\nbay horses are coming to trample me,
\nthey’re coming to trample me underfoot.
\nBut I will kick them with my hoof,
\nI will kick them in the middle of their foreheads
\nso they remember me, so they speak of me,
\nand in the evening that scar will shine for them,
\nwill shine in their nights without moonlight,
\nwill shine in their days without sunlight,
\nwill shine on their paths through the elderwort.\nSay nothing, blood. Blood, calm yourself,
\nencircled by nine gardens,
\nenclosed by nine gorges,
\nlike an all-powerful ruler
\nin some inaccessible fortress.\n\tAco \u0160opov<\/a>, Not-Being (Nebidnina)<\/a><\/em>, 1963
\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