Forgive me, holy mother, forgive me
For mourning the pine of our mountains.
Will we find her in the return of the night
in the return of the flower, in the return of the dream and the mountains
on the confused horizon, in the sour crystal of weakness
from our thirst and the dead angel where seas turned to stone.
The face of all ages, in expectation of the fire, will it be able
to save her memory from oblivion and space
Some large constellation spent the night in your death
Oh empty griefs and grieving seas.
Which landscapes are in your heart now?
She's dead and somewhere the day still goes, oh swallows
All dead are together, you were full of dark hopes.
You're in a desert which grows in an empty light
while in a dual silence, her existence the blind eyes can't dispute
Santa Maria della Salute
Behind the poem
Laza Kostic 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.
Laza Kostic was a Serbian poet, writer, lawyer. When we think of Kostic today, we mostly think about his turbulent love story which would go on to inspire some of his best works. Kostic was in love with Jelena "Lenka" Dundjerski, daughter of his close friend, a girl almost thirty years his junior. He admired how educated she was at such a young age, and she admired his intelligence and works. Their love was mutual. Not knowing what else to do, Lenka's father found Laza a wife and urged him to marry her so both him and Lenka could forget about their forbidden love. While on a honeymoon with his newlywed wife, Laza visited the church Santa Maria Della Salute in Venice. Lenka died suddenly just a few months after his wedding, some suggest her heart couldn't take it. After her death, Laza wrote a song for her titled Santa Maria Della Salute (where all the lines famously end rhyming with the title of the song, Miljkovic did it here on purpose), which is considered the most beautiful Serbian love song ever. Laza died after a battle with tuberculosis in Vienna.
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| Laza Kostic |
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| Branko Miljkovic |
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