Branko Miljkovic - Branko

 I cheer up the night under the ground

The wind grows into a soft plant

from that underground place to which I never

seem to move a lamp and a bird in.

The unfound lawns of blood

in the sandy afternoon have stopped hurting me

but the warm bread of your name I still crumble

oh you bird amongst landscapes, Strazilovo,

the ground above my asleep mind

while the forest is dying leaf by leaf

A child hidden in a single kiss suffers

for it's born tomorrow. Oh let the wind fool with the plants

Let the stones fall asleep before an invisible crossroad

But will they recognize my smile on the skeleton?

Behind the poem

Branko is one of the seven poems from a cycle in Branko Miljkovic's first poetry book In vain I wake her called Seven dead poets. Each of these seven poems Branko dedicated to Serbian poets whose work he felt was extraordinary and influential. Those poets also have one more thing in common - they all died a tragic death.

This one is dedicated to his namesake, Branko Radicevic, a young Serbian romanticism poet who struggled with tuberculosis his entire life and died of it at the age of twenty nine. Among his most famous poets is "I sing by day, I sing by night" which he wrote for Mina Karadžić. Mina was the daughter of Vuk Karadžić, his close friend and a Serbian language reformator. Branko was in love with Mina but chose not to pursue it because he didn't want anyone getting attached to him, for he knew he'd die young. Branko was famously very nostalgic of his hometown Sremski Karlovci, where he was burried on a hill named Strazilovo (mentioned in this song).

Branko Radicevic

Branko Miljkovic