Milorad Pavić
THE EPILOGUE
Never more
The Raven
If you were to buy me once more
A notebook with pages blank and unlined
Perhaps I would finally be able
To write you a love letter
The last instead of the first
*
I was happy, but did not know it,
You were unhappy, but did not know it.
When we realized, it was too late
Forever for me, but not for you
But you did not know that either
*
At „Ljubić’s“ we dined on
Veal with baked vegetables
You sat unhappy and healthy
And I happy and ill
In the mirror behind you
The cars and people going down the street
Were going up the street
*
For my birthday you bought me a book
I read it with your eyes
Watching out for the parts in it
That you might appreciate
For me books are no more
*
There are people that hate us immensely
And others that love us well
I am used to that; you are not
I count only the second,
But you, only the first.
*
You are clairvoyant, you see the future better
Not I, I more clearly see the past
You think only of the past
I dream only of the future
Perhaps we all want what we do not have
*
A woman once foretold us
The future would not resemble the past
I do not believe in that prophecy
On your parasol I wrote
All the lovely days of our past
All the gloomy days of our past
You wrote onto my umbrella
You do not believe that prophecy either
*
An ancient man once wrote
I cannot live with you or without you
When I read that I said
How beautifully this is put
Today I could not care less how it is put
Now I know it to be true
*
In youth the body is before the spirit
In old age the spirit is before the body
I know that both in work and in love
I seized the moment
When the spirit and body were equal
And now it is as it must be
*
You were young, beautiful and talented
I was happy because of your talent
You were unhappy because of my talent
Which left no time for the two of us
While I thought that talent did not count the years
*
I said that books are our children
When they are ready they will spread their wings and fly
When that happened our children spread their wings and flew
When that happened our books spread their wings and flew
Now our house is without the mortar that binds
*
A Russian man says that time
Stands still in matter and flows in energy
I think that our Now, our life
Is born at the intersection of eternity and time
You say that only for four more years
You will be able to wear pretty dresses
(These unpublished verses were written in October and November 2009. Some of them in hospital.) (note by Jasmina Mihajlović)
