|Vele Smilevski

Vele Smilevski was born in 1949 in Novo Selo, Demir Hisar area. He is a poet, literature critic and essayist. He has obtained a PhD degree in philological sciences. He works as an expert councilor in the Macedonian Literature Institute and he is a professor at the Department of Journalism at the Faculty of Law in Skopje. He was a president of the Board of Struga Poetry Evenings and President of the Writers’ Association of Macedonia. He is a member of the Macedonian PEN Centre. He was chief editor of the publishing house “Misla” and Macedonian literary magazine “Razgledi”. He is the author of the books of poetry Burning down picture (1974), Cage (1978), Take a Deep Breath (1985), Echo of the Breath (1987), Moving points (1990), Scratches (1995) and others.

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CONCEPT OF A BOOK

 

No book can be doomed

A Forbidden Book.

 

The stake turning hotter

Is steadily heading us

To the zone

Of the unwritten.

 

Thus

There has never been, nor shall there ever be

A Forbidden Book.

 

But the thought

Of excluding the chance

Of prohibition

Is a cry

Or

An idea for testament,

For a book to live and see

The reading liberty.

 

The urge

To voice this truth

Raises us high.

 

There is no getting down from there.