Podgorica-based Montenegrin poet, literary translator and music writer, Tanja Bakić, is currently pursuing a PhD in English Literature, specializing in the works of the British Romantic poet and painter William Blake. She was a visiting researcher at Harvard University. She was twice a speaker at William Blake colloquium at the Tate Britain in London. She authored a chapter in The reception of William Blake in Europe published by Bloomsbury in 2019. She was the winner of the Central European Initiative Fellowship Prize in Literature in 2016. Her other fellowships come from: Ministry of Science of Montenegro, Modern Humanities Research Association, International House of Authors in Graz (Austria), Slovenian Public Fund for Cultural Activities, Forum of Slavic Cultures, Traduki (Berlin-based European network for literature) in Novo mesto and in Tirana, etc. She was twice chosen by the international board of art critics for the Montenegrin representative at the Biennial of the Artists of Europe and Mediterranean – in Milan (2015) and in Ancona (2013). She has been an invited guest at various international poetry festivals, and has served several international AiR programmes. Her poetry has been translated into some 20 foreign languages through magazines and anthologies, such as: Modern Literature, Rochford Street Review, Words Without Borders, Recours au Poème, Bosphorus Review of Books, Trafika Europe, Arbolarium, Antologia poética de los cinco continents (Buenos Aires: Editorial echarper, 2019), Capitals (New Delhi: Bloomsbury, 2017) World Haiku (Tokyo: World Haiku Association, 2016), Voix de la Méditeranée (La passe du vent, 2012), and the like. She is chosen by the Australian poet Les Wicks among only sixteen writer across the globe to “bring something unique to the world poetry movement“.
She produced 4 poetry volumes – the first of which was published when she was 15 years old –which received numerous critical accolades. Her most recent published poetry translation work into Montenegrin is Landing Light by the award-winning Scottish poet, Don Paterson (2018). Her latest musical non-fiction work is Brian Jones i njegov bend (Brian Jones and His Band, 2019), featuring her interview with Michael Lindsay Hogg, who directed promotional films for the Rolling Stones.
Tanja Bakić, Poems
***
The leaves have
Fallen again.
Under a star
Naked I stand.
Blood yours
And blood mine –
That’s me –
Your seed,
Your breath, your sky.
But I wish now
I were your only star.
***
An open wound
Under the hot earth
Calls me out.
I look at the sky
With another’s eyes.
A star like an eyeball
Stares at me.
I leave behind
What I once used
To be.
And keep my pain.
Velvet I am now.
***
The secret of her tear
Hides in her wish
To escape the light.
The light sullies her,
Wrenches the tear
From its roots,
Taints it with the world.
***
Where Are We at Now?
You spoke to me in my dream
In those wee hours of the morning
Waking me from the nightmare
In which I had long dwelt.
Outside, big snowflakes were
Falling, turning ever fluffier
Tangling the invisible threads of the wind,
Wiping away the traces of sleeplessness.
I knew you were
About to tell me something,
Looking for me,
Wanting to see me.
But I don’t even know
Whether you still exist or not.
I erased you from my memories
And buried you on the crumbs
Of my past life.
Where’re we at now, you and me both?
Did we hide
Under the leaves of the sunken city
Or were we both fooled
By the game
Of ending and disappearing
That we forgot
That life still
Tastes of dregs,
That ice is black,
And light is sea-coloured?
Where’re we at now
After strolling
Under the moonlight,
After diving
Under the dregs of the water?
I can’t even remember what
Message you gave me in my dream,
Nor what it stirred then
Inside me,
But I think that
The tone of your voice
Is deeper than all
The oceans and seas
And that with ease
It crossed a scarlet bridge
From my pain to yours.
I went back to my dream
And headed towards you
Through the dead ends of labyrinths
From the same nightmare
You stirred me from
That snow-covered morning
With your eyes wide shut
And brought me back to reality.
I desired to dive
Into your arms and wipe away
The dust from your heart.
But you were sleeping.
I also desired
To tell you something, but…
The moment you wake up
And open your
Darkened eyes,
I want you to remove
The snow from my eyes
For a new pain
That will be
Louder than my own,
For a new stillness
That will be more silent than mine.
For a new death
That will be stronger than me.
