Public Republic

Vladimir Levchev

Photo: dospaz

My name is Lazarus.
I came from the grave.
17 years I waited, waited
perched on a damp root
on the opposite side of life.
The sky there
is dark and firm.

My name is Lazarus.
I came from the grave.
I woke up one morning
in Paradise
together with millions
of awakened kindred souls:
We flew up in a green tree
in another time –
a fleet of old-fashioned
brown motorcycles
with two red headlights.

Our song is
the song of time:
it says Good morning,
and it says Goodbye
with one high pitched note –
a growing song
under the sun.

My name is Lazarus.
I came from the grave.
17 years of life in death,
17 years in a sky of stone,
17 years of silence
don’t exist anymore. . .
What is time?
It’s a dream!

I will die in a month.
(A month in Paradise!)
But what is time, what is time?
The last hour of our life
is forever.

My name is Lazarus.
I came from the grave.
I came to tell you
Good morning and Goodbye.

Translated from Bulgarian by Alicia Suskin Ostriker and Vladimir Levchev