Birth of the Word

Gnarl upon gnarl.
Stone upon stone.
Stone forest
frozensolidness.
Gnarl upon gnarl.
Stone upon stone,
stone, too, the both of us.
Smoke rises in the night.
The word separates from the darkness,
blue coal burning in its bowels.
O you who exist because you do not exist,
you shake the sky
you spin the earth.
O you who exist because you do not exist,
the earth groans beneath stone plates.
Dazed from its dyings, the word comes forth—
the word that splinters all our temples.
Gnarl upon gnarl.
Stone upon stone.
Out of bad habit I dig my grave.
Open me,
accursed one,
you fortress of stone,
that I may burn in the coals of the word
and melt away.

Aco Šopov, Not-Being, 1963
Read the cycle “Prayers of My Body”
Translated by Rawley Grau and Christina E. Kramer, The Long Coming of the Fire, Deep Vellum, 2023