Golden Wreath

Award "Golden Wreath"

The Golden Wreath Award is one of the most important international poetry awards in the world.

The Golden Wreath is one of the most significant poetry awards in the world. It was initially allocated for the best poem read at the Festival, chosen by an international jury, and since 1971 it has been allocated for the overall poetry opus of one eminent world poet.

The design of the Goldern Wreath was prepared by Dimche Protugjer, a Macedonian painter and graphic artist, who was a member of the Council of SPE, and one of the founders of the Macedonian painting after the Liberation.

The international recognition, the award Golden Wreath is allocated at the international poetry meeting Bridges at the outflow of the Crn Drim River in front of an audience of several thousands of people. Struga Poetry Evenings each year publish representational book of poetry by the winner of the award Golden Wreath in the original language and translated in Macedonian.

Excerpts from the book "Poetic Capital of the World" by Goce Ristovski

Awarded Poets

Carol Ann Duffy

Amir Or

Ana Blandiana

Adam Zagajewski

Charles Simic

Margaret Atwood

Bei Dao

Adonis

Ko Un

Jose Emilio Pacheko

Nancy Morejon

Vasco Graça Moura

Justo Jorhe Padron

Ljubomir Levchev

Mahmoud Darwish

Fatos Arapi

William Stanley Marwin

Tomas Tranströmer

Slavko Mihalic

Seamus Heaney

Edoardo Sanguineti

Yves Bonnefoy

Lu Yuan

Makoto Ooka

Yehuda Amichai

Ted Hughes

Gennady Aygi

Ferenc Juhasz

Joseph Brodsky

Thomas Shapcott

Desanka Maksimovic

Tadeusz Różewicz

Yiannis Ritsos

Allen Ginsberg

Andrey Voznesensky

Nichita Stanescu

Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan Agyeya

Blaze Koneski

Miroslav Krlezha

Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Rafael Alberti

Eugene Guillevic

Artur Lundkvist

Leopold Sédar Senghor

Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca

Pablo Neruda

Eugenio Montale

Wystan Hugh Auden

Mak Dizdar

Miodrag Pavlovic

László Nagy

Robert Rozhdestvensky

Bulat Okudzhava

Tomaž Šalamun

Mongany Wally Serote

Mateja Matevski

Carol Ann Duffy

Carol Ann Duffy (born in Glasgow, 1955, in a family of Irish descent) is one of the most famous poetic names in Great Britain. Alongside being highly valued and esteemed in academic circles, she is a favorite of the broader audience too. An important detail towards this statement is the fact that her poetry has already been included as part of the school reading lists in national curriculums at universities and schools alike. Starting with her first, provocatively titled book “Standing Female Nude” (published in the middle of the 80s), Carol Ann Duffy had managed to garner a broad spectrum of readers, but also the undisputable support from literary critics, who recognized her as “an outstanding, new voice of poetry”. Since her debut book, nearly all new poetry publications by Duffy have been awarded with the most prestigious national and international recognitions (including the prestigious T. S. Eliot poetry prize, awarded for her collection Rapture (2005), making her the first female author in history to have received this prize), followed by the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, the PEN/Pinter Prize, etc.), which is an ample testimony to the unequivocal reputation of her poetry among the demanding, critical public. For the first time in the 400-year-old tradition of this recognition, in 2009, Duffy was the first female poet to hold the post of Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom. She is the author of nearly 50 books, the latest being: Sincerity (2019), Frost Fair (2019). Besides being the recipient of numerous important international literary awards, Carol Ann Duffy has been awarded high honors, one of the highest is being named as “Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire” in 2015.

Poem:ORIGINALLY

Poem:BEFORE

Poem:Nest

Poem:The Blue Dress

Poem:Anne Hathaway

Amir Or

Amir Or, born in Tel Aviv in 1956, is the author of ten volumes of poetry. His latest books in Hebrew are The Museum of Time (2007) Heart Beast (2010) and Prophecy of the Madman (2012). His poems, translated into more than forty languages, have appeared in anthologies, poetry journals, as well as in twelve books in Europe and the U.S. Among them are Poem and Day (both published by Dedalus, U.K., in 2004, and 2006, respectively); Plates from the Museum of Time (ArtAark, U.S., 2009); and the Spanish-English Miracle/The Hours (Urpi Editores, U.S., 2011). Or is the recipient of Israeli and international poetry awards, including the Bernstein Prize, the Fulbright Award for Writers, the Levi Eshkol Prime Minister’s Poetry Prize, and the Oeneumi literary prize of the Tetovo Poetry Festival (2010). He was also awarded several poetry fellowships, among them fellowships from Iowa University; the Centre of Jewish-Hebrew Studies at the University of Oxford; the Literarische Colloquium, Berlin; the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Ireland; and from the Hawthornden Castle, Scotland. He is recipient of the Golden Wreath for 2020, Struga

Poem:Eagle Song

Poem:Language Says

Ana Blandiana

Ana Blandiana, born in 1942 in Timisoara, poet, essayist and prose writer, civic right activist is almost legendary figure in Romanian culture.  She has authored eighteen books of poetry, two of short stories, seven books of essays and one novel that have been translated into twenty-six languages and grouped into eighty books of poetry and prose to date.  Blandiana was co-founder and President of the Civic Alliance from 1990, an independent non-political organisation that fought for freedom and democratic change. She also re-founded and became President of the Romanian PEN Club in 1990. Under the aegis of the European Community, she created the Memorial for the Victims of Communism (1993), distinguished with the European Heritage label.  In recognition of her contribution to European culture and her valiant fight for human rights, Blandiana was awarded the highest distinction of the French Republic, the Légion d’Honneur (2009) while the US State Department distinguished her with the Romanian Women of Courage Award (2014). She holds four doctor honoris causa awards.  Among the numerous international literary prizes, Blandiana is still the youngest recipient of the Herder Prize (Vienna 1982), and was awarded the European Poet of Freedom Prize (Gdansk 2016), and The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry (Toronto 2017).

Poem:(Macedonian) ВРАЌАЊЕ

Adam Zagajewski

Born in 1945 in Lvov (now in Ukraine).  Grew up in Gliwice, Poland. In 1963 moved to Krakow where he studied at the Jagiellonian University. In the late seventies was an active dissident and took part in the oppositional literary movement. In 1979 was offered a fellowship by the International Kunstlerprogramm and spent two years in West Berlin. Since late 1982 had lived in Paris. In 2002 returned to Krakow where he still lives. In Paris he joined the editorial board of the exile literary magazine “Zeszyty Literackie”. In the spring of 1988 began to teach a semester a year at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 2007 became a member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago where he taught literature one quarter a year until 2013. Received numerous international prizes; among others the Neustadt International Prize in Literature in 2004,  Zhongkun International Poetry Prize (Beijing, 2013), the Princess of Asturias Prize in Literature, 2017. Poetry: Communiqué (Komunikat, 1972); Meat Shops (Sklepy mięsne, 1975); Letter. Ode to Multiplicity (List. Oda do wielości, 1982); To go to Lvov (Jechać do Lwowa, 1985); Canvas (Płótno, 1990); Fiery Land (Ziemia ognista, 1994); Desire (Pragnienie, 1999); Return (Powrót, 2003); Antennas (Anteny, 2005); Invisible Hand (Niewidzialna ręka, 2009); Asymmetry (Asymetria, 2014).  Prose—Essays: The Unrepresented World (Świat nie przedstawiony) (coauthor: Julian Kornhauser, 1974); Second Wind (Drugi oddech, 1978); Solidarity and Solitude (Solidarność i samotność, 1986); Two Cities (Dwa miasta, 1991); In the Beauty of Others (W cudzym pięknie, 1998); In defence of Fervour (Obrona żarliwości, 2002); The Poet Talks to the Philospher (Poeta rozmawia z filozofem, 2007); Slight Exaggeration (Lekka przesada, 2011); Poetry for Beginners (Poezja dla początkujących, 2017).

Poem:SUBJECT: BRODSKY

Poem:ABOUT MY MOTHER

Poem:IN THE BEAUTY CREATED BY OTHERS

Poem:NOW THAT YOU’VE LOST YOUR MEMORY

Poem:TRY TO PRAISE THE MUTILATED WORLD

Charles Simic

Чарлс Симиќ  е  роден на 9 мај 1938 година во Белград, Југославија. Во 1954 година неговото семејство емигрира во САД. Чарлс Симиќ е еден од најисклучителните поети на денешнината. Симиќ за своето дело е добитник на бројни книжевни награди, меѓу кои и Пулицеровата награда во 1990 година, меѓународната награда „Грифин“ за поезија, медалот „Роберт Фрост“, наградата „Збигњев Херберт“, наградата „Валас Стивенс“, а бил назначен како Poeta Laureatus на САД. Неговотот поетско творештво го сочинуваат книгите: Што кажува тревата (1967); Некаде меѓу нас каменот фаќа белешки (1969); Разградување на тишината (1971); Бело (1972); Враќање на место осветлено од чаша млеко (1974); Биографија и тажаленка (1976); Харонова космологија (1977); Класични игри од балската сала (l980); Острини (1982); Временска прогноза за градот Утопија и околината (1983); Избрани песни 1963-1983 (1985), Бескрајна тага (1986), Светот не завршува (1989) Книга на богови и ѓаволи (1990); Хотел Несоница (1992); Свадба в пекол(1994); Застрашувачки играчки (1995); Прошетка со црната мачка (1996); Си ја барам бељата (1997); Jackstraws (Игра со чкорчиња) (l999); Избрани рани песни (1999); Ноќен излет (2001); Глас во 3 часот наутро: Избрани подоцнежни и нови песни (2003); Избрани песни 1963-2003 (2004); Тетка Марула сакам да ти ѕирнам под здолништето (2005); Мојата нема придружба (2005); Тоа мало нешто (2008); Шеесет песни (2008); Мајстор за преправање (2010), Избрани и нови песни 1962-2012 (2013); Лудак (2015), Чкртки во мракот (2017). Симиќ исто така објавил бројни преводи од француската, српската, хрватската, македонската и словенечката поезија, а автор е не неколку книги есеи.

Poem:IN MY GRANDMOTHER’S TIME

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa. She is the author of more than forty volumes of poetry, novels, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction. While studying in Boston, she published her first collection of poetry, The Circle Game (1966), which was awarded the prestigious Governor General’s Award and she gained international reputation after publishing the poetry collection Double Persephone. Over the next few years, she continued to alternate between poetry and prose. In her poetry, the most common theme is the relation between civilization and wilderness and she considers these oppositions to be some of the defining principles of Canadian literature. She is the author of over fifteen books of poetry which have been translated in many languages and published in more than twenty five countries. Her poetry work includes: The Circle Game (1964); The Animals in That Country (1969); The Journals of Suzanna Moodie (1970); Procedures for Underground (1970); Power Politics (1971); You are Happy (1974); Selected poems (1976); Selected poems (1965-1975); Two-Headed Poems (1978); Interlunar (1984); Selected Poems (1966-1984); Margaret Atwood Poems (1976-1986); Morning in the Burned House (1995); Eating Fire: Selected Poetry (1965-1995); The Door (2007).

Poem 𝄞:THE POET HAS COME BACK…

Poem 𝄞:THE MOMENT

Poem 𝄞:EATING SNAKE

Poem 𝄞:CHARIVARI

Poem 𝄞:DREAM 1: THE BUSH GARDEN

Bei Dao

Bei Dao is the most distinguished Chinese poet of his generation and considered by many to be one of the major writers of modern China. Born Zhao Zhenkai on August 2, 1949, in Beijing, his pseudonym, Bei Dao, literally means "Northern Island" and was suggested by a friend as a reference to the poet's provenance from northern China as well as his typical solitude. Bei Dao became one of the foremost poets of the Misty School, a group of Chinese poets who reacted against the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution. In 1978 Bei Dao and colleague Mang Ke founded the underground literary magazine Jintian (Today), which the Chinese government banned from publication in 1980. Bei Dao's poem Huida ("The Answer") was taken up as a defiant anthem of the pro-democracy movement and appeared on posters during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. During the 1989 movement, Bei Dao was in Berlin as a writer in residence and was not allowed to return to China. He spent the next eighteen years ill exile, living in eight different countries. Bei Dao's books of poetry include Unlock (2000), At the Sky's Edge: Poems 1991-1996 (1996), Landscape Over Zero (1995), Forms of Distance (1994), Old Snow (1991), and The August Sleepwalker (1988). He is also the author of the short-story collection Waves (1985) and two essay collections, Blue House (2000) and Midnight's Gate (2005), an excerpt from which appeared ill the May 2005 issue of World Literature Today (under the title "New York Variations"). His work has been translated into over thirty languages. His awards and honors include the Aragana Poetry Prize from the International Festival of Poetry in Casablanca, Morocco, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has been a candidate several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was elected an honorary member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. At the request of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, he traveled to Palestine as part of a delegation for the International Parliament of Writers. Bei Dao was a Stanford Presidential lecturer and has taught at the University of California at Davis, the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and Beloit College in Wisconsin. In 2006, Bei Dao was allowed to move back to China.

Poem:Let’s go

Adonis

He was born in Al Quassabin on 1 January 1930. He is a poet, essay writer, born in Syria, but later on becomes a citizen of Lebanon. He is the greatest contemporary Arabic poet. His work is a excellent lyrical synthesis of the East and the West,one new literature expression and interpretation. Works: Songs of Mihyar the Damascene, 1961; Book of Metamorphosis and Moving in the Regions of Day and Night, 1965; Theatre and Mirrors, 1968; Time between Ashes and Roses, 1970; Singulari in Plural form, 1977; Book of Surroundings, 1985; Lascivousness Surging in the Maps of Matter, 1987; Light Celebrations, 1988; Second Alphabet, 1994. He is an author of many books essays.

Poem:To the poem

Poem:Ruins

Poem:***

Poem:**

Ko Un

Ko Un was born in 1933, which means that today he is nearer 80 than 70. He is surely Korea's most prolific writer and he himself cannot say for sure how many books he has published in all. He guesses that it must be about 140, volumes of many different kinds of poetry, epic, narrative, and lyric, as well as novels, plays, essays, and translations from classical Chinese. In the last two decades he has made journeys to many parts of the world, including Australia, Vietnam, the Netherlands, Mexico, Sweden, Venice, Istanbul . . . He makes a deep impression wherever he goes, especially when he is reading his poems in the husky, tense, dramatic manner he favors. It seems to make little or no difference that most of his audience cannot understand a word he is saying. He speaks little or no English but time after time a deep communication is established before anyone reads an English translation or summary of what he had been saying. After the drama of his own performance, the translations usually sound rather flat. Ko Un's ability to communicate beyond language is a gift that other Korean writers can only envy him for. There are some people who do not seem to need words in order to communicate, it is part of their charisma. There are many barriers to communication and many are the arts by which people have tried to overcome them. In the case of Ko Un, who cannot be every day giving readings, there is an urgent need to make translations of his work available. In bringing Ko Un's writings to a world audience, I am acting to make cross-cultural communication possible in one particular case. It may be good to begin with a summary of Ko Un’s life story, since that in turn may help to pinpoint some of the difficulties we encounter in translating his writings. He was born in 1933 and grew up in Gunsan, a town on the west coast of North Jeolla Province. Echoes of his childhood experiences in the Korea of the 1930s and 1940s can be found in the earlier volumes of the great 30-volume series known as Maninbo, the final volumes of which were published early in 2010. The traditional life of the farming villages, the intense awareness of extended family relationships, the poverty and the high level of infant mortality all make this a world far removed even from modern Korea, and very unfamiliar to non-Korean readers. Readers are expected to know that when Ko Un was a child, Korea was under Japanese rule, and to know what that signifies for Koreans still today. In 1950, war broke out and Ko Un was caught up in almost unimaginably painful situations, which were in strong contradiction with the warm human community he had grown up in, as Koreans and outside forces slaughtered each other mercilessly. As a child, Ko Un had been something of a prodigy, learning classical Chinese at an early age with great facility, and encountering the world of poetry as a schoolboy through the chance discovery of a book of poems written by a famous leper-poet. His sensitivity was not that of an ordinary 18-year-old and he experienced a deep crisis when confronted with the reality of human wickedness and cruelty. His experiences included the murder of members of his family and the death of his first love as well as days spent carrying corpses to burial. He poured acid into his ears in an attempt to block out the "noise" of this dreadful world, an act that left him permanently deaf in one ear. The traumas of war might have destroyed him completely but he took refuge in a temple and the monk caring for him decided that his only hope of finding a way out of his torment would be by becoming a Buddhist monk, leaving the world at a time when the world was a very ugly place. His great intellectual skills meant that he rapidly became known in Buddhist circles and after the Korean War ended he was given responsibilities. More important to Ko Un were his experience of life on the road as he accompanied his master, the famous monk Hyobong, on endless journeys around the ravaged country. Hyobong had been a judge during the Japanese period and had quit the world to become a monk after being forced to condemn someone to death. Ko Un's character is intense, uncompromising, he is easily driven to emotional extremes and he soon began to react against what he felt was the excessively formal religiosity of many monks. The reader of his work has sometimes to follow him through shadows cast by intense despair. He felt obliged to stop living as a monk and in the early 1960s he became a teacher in Jeju Island. Later in the decade he moved to Seoul. For several years he lived as a bohemian nihilist while Korea was brought toward its modern industrial development under the increasingly fierce dictatorship of Park Chung-hee. The climax came early in 1970 when Ko Un went up into the hills behind Seoul and drank poison. He nearly died but was found and brought down to hospital. In November 1970 a young textile-worker, Jeon Tae-il, killed himself during a demonstration in support of workers' rights. Ko Un read about his death in a newspaper he picked up by chance from the floor of a bar where he had spent the night. The impact of such a selfless death changed his life radically. He says that from that moment on he lost all inclination to kill himself. The declaration of the Yushin reforms in 1972, by which Park Chung-hee became president for life and abolished democratic institutions, sparked strong protests among writers and intellectuals as well as among the students who have always acted as Korea's conscience. In the years of demonstrations and protests that followed, Ko Un's voice rang out and he became the recognized spokesman of the 'dissident' artists and writers opposed to the Park regime. He was often arrested and is today hard of hearing from beatings he received then. When Chun Doo-hwan rose to power in 1980, Ko Un was arrested along with Kim Dae-jung and many hundreds of Korea's 'dissidents' and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. It was there, as he faced the possibility of arbitrary execution, that he formed the project of writing poems in commemoration or celebration of every person he had ever encountered. No one, he reckoned, should ever be simply forgotten, since every life has immense value and is equally precious as historical record. This was the origin of the poems in the Maninbo (Ten Thousand Lives) series. Once the new regime felt sure of its hold on power, most of the prisoners were amnestied. Ko Un was freed in August 1982, in May 1983 he married Lee Sang-Wha, and in 1985 a daughter was born. He went to live in Anseong, two hours from Seoul, and began a new life as a householder, husband, and father, while continuing to play a leading role in the struggle for democracy and for a socially committed literature. There are people who say that a poet's life has nothing to do with the poems he or she writes but that is hardly tenable. It is a theory that considers poetry uniquely from a formal standpoint and excludes every aspect of personal, social, or historical context. Yet every word Ko Un writes is rooted in and informed by the experience of life I have just outlined. It is inconceivable that a man with such a life-story should not write poems deeply marked by it. He has a very intense sense of history, and of his writing as a mirror of Korean history. Books of Poems Other World Sensibility(1960), Seaside Poems(1966), God, the Last Village of Language(1967), Senoya, Senoya: Little Songs(1970), On the Way to Munui Village(1977), Going into Mountain Seclusion(1977), Early Morning Road(1978), Homeland Stars(1984), Pastoral Poems(1986), Fly High, Poems!(1986), The Person Who Should Leave(1986), Your Eyes(1988), My Evening(1988), The Grand March of That Day(1988), Morning Dew(1990), For Tears(1991), One Thousand Years’ Cry and Love: Lyrical Poems of Paektu Mountain(1990), Sea Diamond Mountain(1991), What?—Zen Poems(1991), Songs on the Street(1991), Song of Tomorrow(1992) The Road Not Yet Taken(1993), Songs for ChaRyong(1997), Dokdo Island(1995), Ten Thousand Lives, 20 Volumes(1986-1997), Paektu Mountain: An Epic, 7 Volumes(1987-94), A Memorial Stone (1997), Whispering(1998), Far, Far Journey(1999), South and North(2000), The Himalayas(2000), Flowers of a Moment(2001). Poems Left Behind (2002). Novels Cherry Tree in Other World(1961), Eclipse(1974), A Little Traveler(1974), Night Tavern: A Collection of Short Stories(1977), A Shattered Name (1977), The Wandering Souls: Hansan and Seupduk (1978), A Certain Boy: A Collection of Short Stories(1984), The Garland Sutra (Little Pilgrim)(1991), Their Field(1992) The Desert I Made(1992), Chongsun Arirang(1995), The Wandering Poet Kim, 3 volumes(1995), Zen: A Novel, 2 Volumes(1995), Sumi Mountain, 2 volumes(1999) Collections of Essays Born to be Sad(1967), Sunset on the G-String(1968), Things that Make Us Sad(1968), Where and What Shall We Meet Again?—A Message of Despair(1969), An Era is Passing(1971), 1950s(1973), For Disillusionment(1976), Intellectuals in Korea(1976), The Sunset on the Ghandis(1976), A Path Secular(1977), With History, With Sorrow(1977), For Love(1978), For Truth(1978), For the Poor(1978), Penance to the Horizon(1979), My Unnamable Spiritual(1979), Flowers from Suffering(1986), Flow, Water(1987), Ko Un’s Correspondence(1989), The Leaves Become Blue Mountain(1989), Wandering and Running at Full Speed(1989), History is Dreaming(1990), How I Wandered from Field to Field(1991), The Diamond Sutra I Experience(1993), Meditation in the Wilderness(1993), Truth-Seeker(1993), I Will Not Be Awakened(1993), At the Living Plaza(1997), Morning with Poetry(1999) Travel Books Old Temples: My Pilgrimage, My Country(1974), Cheju Island(1975), A Trip to India(1993), Mountains and Rivers, My Mountains and Rivers(1999), Works of Literary Criticism Literature and People(1986), Poetry and Reality(1986), Twilight and Avant-Garde(1990), Biography A Critical Biography of Yi Jooung-Sup(1973), A Critical Biography of the Poet Yi Sang(1973), A Critical Biography of Han Yong-Un(1975) Autobiography Son of Yellow Soil: My Childhood(1986), I, Ko Un, 3 Volumes (1993) Translations Selected Poems of the Tang Dynasty(1974), Selected Poems of Tufu(1974), Chosa: Selected Poems by Kulwon(1975) Editions Several works of old Korean poetry and songs. To say nothing of some Children’s Books Awards Korean Literature Prize(1974) Korean Literature Prize(1987) Manhae Prize in Literature(1989) Joong-Ang Prize for Literature(1991) Daesan Prize for Literature(1994) Honorary resident of Jeong Seon County, KangWon Province (1997) Manhae Grand Prize(1998) Buddhist Literature Prize(1999) The Republic of Korea's Silver Order of Merit in Culture (2002) Danjae Prize(2004) Unification Award(2005) Bjornson Order for Literature, the only Norwegian Order for Literary Merits(2005) Swedish Literary Prize ‘the Cikada Prize” (2006) Young-Rang Poetry Award(2007) Yusim(Mind) Literature Prize(2008) Lifetime Achievement Prize (Griffin Fund for Excellence in Poetry, Canada, 2008) Korea Academy of Arts Award(2008) Honorary doctoral degree from Dankook University (2010) Winner of The America Awards for a Lifetime Contribution to International Writinlng (2011) Honorary doctoral degree from Jonbuk University (2011) Honorary resident of Jeju Special Autonomic Province (2011) Membership of Honor Committee of World Poetry Academy (2011) Honorary citizenship of Gwangju Metropolitan City (2012) Honored to be a Human Evergreen Tree (2012) Honorary Fellow from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy (2013)

Poem:Margins of Meditation

Poem:Beggars: Husband and Wife

Poem:Baby

Poem:Echo

Poem:Maternal Grandfather

Poem:Headmaster Abe

Poem:Arrows

Poem:Market Grannies

Poem:Cliff Buddha, West Mountain

Poem:(Macedonian) Возвишена пролет

Poem:(Macedonian) Без наслов

Poem:(Macedonian) Нова Година

Jose Emilio Pacheko

José Emilio Pacheco Berny was born in Mexico City on June 30, 1939. He is a poet, fiction writer, essayist, journalist, translator, and university professor. At a very young age he began to stand out as one of the key members of the so-called Half Century Generation in his country. He studied law and literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where he published his first literary texts in student-run magazines. Later on, he wrote for Ramas Nuevas, the supplement of the magazine Estaciones, was Assistant Editor of the Revista de la Universidad de México, and was Editor-in-Chief of the supplement México en la Cultura. His weekly articles for the magazine Proceso, which appeared for various decades, are one of the best examples of cultural journalism in Latin America. He was a researcher for the Department of Historical Studies at the National Institute of Anthropology and History, an experience that brought about the notable publications, La poesía mexicana del siglo XIX (1965) and Antología del Modernismo, 1884-1921 (1978). He has taught at universities in Mexico, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. He has received honorary doctorates from the Mexican universities Autonomous of Nuevo León (2009), Autonomous of Campeche (2010) and National Autonomous of Mexico (2010), and was awarded the Alfonso Reyes Prize from the College of Mexico (2011). He was a member of the National College in his country and Distinguished Professor of the Department of Spanish at the University of Maryland in the United States. He was the author of fifteen books of poetry, all accounted for in the present anthology, with poems selected by the author himself. Additionally, he has published the short story collections La sangre de Medusa y otros cuentos marginales (1959), El viento distante (1963), El principio del placer (1972) and Tarde de agosto (1992); the novels Morirás lejos (1967) and Las batallas en el desierto (1981); and the book of essays El derecho a la lectura (1994). Many of his books have come out in German, French, English, Japanese and Russian. He has translated into Spanish works by Albert Einstein, T. S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett and Evgeny Eytuschenko, among others. He has received numerous noteworthy awards, including the Magda Donato Prize (1967), the Aguascalientes National Poetry Prize (1970), the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize (1973), the National Journalism Prize (1980), the National Prize of Arts and Sciences (1992), the Octavio Paz Prize for Poetry and Essay (2003), the Ramón López Velarde Prize for Ibero-American Poetry (2003) and the Alfonso Reyes International Prize (2004), all in Mexico. Other Spanish-speaking countries have honored him with the José Asunción Silva Prize (1996), in Colombia; the José Donoso Prize for Ibero-American Literature (2001) and the Pablo Neruda Prize for Ibero-American Poetry (2004), in Chile; and the Federico García Lorca International Poetry Prize (2005) and the Reina Sofía Prize for Ibero-American Poetry (2009), in Spain. As the culmination of such an extraordinary life’s work, in 2009 he received in Madrid the Miguel de Cervantes Literature Prize, the most important award given to a writer in the Spanish language. Pacheco died on January 26, 2014 in Mexico City.

Nancy Morejon

One of the foremost Cuban poets and intellectuals, Nancy Morejón has published more than twenty collections of poetry, three monographs, a dramatic poem, and six critical studies of Cuban history and literature. She has gained an international reputation for her poetry, which has been translated into several languages, anthologized in many collections. Among many others she has been awardes with The Golden Wreath (2006) and Rafael Alberti Award (2008).

Poem:Golden circles

Vasco Graça Moura

Born near Oporto but now based in Lisbon, Vasco Graça Moura is Portugal’s most renowned translator of poetry, the winner of major prizes for his renditions of Dante’s Divina Commedia (1995) and the complete sonnets of Shakespeare (2002), and acclaimed as well for his translations of Petrarch, Gottfried Benn, Rilke, Seamus Heaney, and others. Some poems meditate on art and music, others take up historical and literary figures, and even the intensely personal poems connect with large, humanistic concerns. The poetic tradition, more than a thematic subject, is reflected in the poetry’s very manufacture, the poet having revitalized Renaissance metrical & rhyme schemes imported into Portuguese poetry from Italy. Driven by the poetical principle that everything can be transformed into literature, his poems are an attempt of a poetic transfiguration of the banal. The poetry through intertextuality and cultivated perception strives towards literary conversion of reality. His recognizable “casual” style would grow into a specific “narrative poetry”, which very often represents its own outpour of the lyrical, the aesthetic colloquialialism, through which that prosaic style contains all the styles, it even recycles and incorporates the technical dictionary of the West. The verse becomes an expression of experience, of memory, of the transient practice through a personal, biographic emphasis. Some of the poems are meditative emphases of art and music, others are inspired by historical and literary persons, and are even intensely personal poems connected to great, humanistic problems. As a poet, he gained recognition with the book Modus which changes (1963), followed by, among others, English week (1965), December and other poems (1976), Recitatives (1977) Instruments of Melancholy (1980), A concert in a field (1993), Family sonnets (1995), Poems with persons (1997), Testament of VGM (2001). As a novelist he has published: Four last poems (1987), The shipwreck of Sepulveda (1988), Sophonisba leaving at six and twelve in the morning (1993) The death of Nobody (1998) My love, it was night (2001). As an essayist, he has published the books: Luis de Camoes: several challenges (1980), Several voices (1987), Portraits if Isabel and other attempts (1994).

Poem:a dog for pompei

Poem:twilight

Poem:(Macedonian) поети, неколку имиња / poetas, alguns nomes

Poem:Ars Poetica

Justo Jorhe Padron

Justo Jorge Padron was born in 1943 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the Canary Islands, Spain. He is Secretary General of the Spanish PEN Club from 1983 to 1993, founder and editor of the international multilingual journal of poetry ‘Equivalencias’ from 1982 to 1994 and director of the International Poetry Festival of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria from 1992 to 2002 . Chairman and organizer of the sixth world congress of poets held in Madrid in 1982. His poetry has been translated into forty-four languages and has published hundreds of books in foreign languages. He has received thirty international awards including The International Prize of the Swedish Academy, 1972.; Bard International Award of the International association of modern poets, Melbourne, Australia, 1981.; International Prize of Madras, India, 1982 .; Golden Medal of Chinese Culture, 1983.; European Prize for Literature, Yugoslavia, 1986.; Great International Prize for Literature in Sofia, Bulgaria, 1988, twice winner of the “New Macedonia” for best song of the Struga Poetry Evenings, Struga, Macedonia, 1989. and 2002.; Golden Wreath of Struga Poetry Evenings, Macedonia, 1990.; International Award “Blaise Sendrar”, Switzerland, 1994.; International Award “Nikita Stanesku” Romania, 1996.; International Prize of the City of Trieste Italy, 1999.; International Award “Leopold Senghor Cedar”, Dakar, Senegal, 2003.; award of 9 th International Book Fair in Lima, Peru, 2004.; Award “Golden heads of grain” of the International Poetry Festival “Sesar Valjeho” in Truhiljo, Peru, 2008.

Poem:Homage to Blaze Koneski

Poem:The sixt day

Ljubomir Levchev

Lyubomir Levchev was born on 27 April 1935 in Troyan. He graduated from the History-philosophic Faculty at the University St Kliment Ohridski in Sofia. He was an editor nad editor-in-chief of the magazine Literary Front (1961-1971), forst Deputy Minister of Culture of Bulgaria (1975-1979), President of the Writers’ Assotiation of Bulgaris (1979-1989). Since 1991 he has been editor and owner of his Publishing House Orpheus and the same-named international magazine. His first poetry book “The Stars are Mine” was published in 1957. In 2007 he publishes his poetry book “The Last Poems”. In that period of 50 years he published over 30 books of poetry, as well as the novels “Kill the Bulgarian!” (1988) and “You are the Next” (1998). In 2008 the last volume of his Selected works named “Dangerous Freedom” was published. Levchev’s works have been published in 34 countries in 70 separate books. He is a significant activist of culture (1997), honourable PhD of the bulgarian Free University, full-time member of the European academy of art, science and culture in Paris, member-founder of the Europen Poetry Academy in Luxembourgm member of the international House of Poetry in Brussels, member of the International literary fund of Moscow and a honourable member of “Kasa Internacional de Poesia” from Lima

Mahmoud Darwish

He was born in 1942 in the village of al-Birwa in Galilee. The most famous Palestinian died in the USA in 2008. He was imprisoned and put into house arrest for his political activity. He was editor of the magazine Itihad before he left in 1971 on one-year studies in the USSR. Then he goes to Egypt, in Cairo works for the magazine Al-Ahram, goes to Beirut,Lebanon, where he edits the magazine Palestinian Publications, and he was also a Director of the Palestinian Researches Centre. Until his retrieval in Palestina in 1996 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and lived in exile between Beirut and Paris. His poems are well-known to the whole Arab world, and to some of them music for singing has been composed. During the years his poetry gained international fame, so some of them - from the 30 published poetry books - have been translated in 35 languages. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of the prestigious literature magazine Al Carmel, re-established in 1997 by the Sakakini Centre, where he is an honorable member. His most famous poetry books are: Bed of a Stranger (1998), the narrative poem Mural (2000), State of Siege (2002). In 1997 a documentary was filmed for the French TV.

Fatos Arapi

He was born in 1930, studied Economy in Bulgaria, and in Tirana he worked as a journalist and lecturer of Modern Albanian Literature. His poetry opus is consisted of 25 books. He is author of philosophy verses, love poetry and elegies. He turns the attention towards himself since the 60ties, when he published his first poetry books “Poetic Paths” and “Poemsand Verses”. With those poetry collections he introduced elements of the global literature currencies and ideas into the Albanian literature that had stagnated for a long time. In many literature magazines his poetry is described as a harmony where sea waves merge with the ideas of liberation of the individual form the restraints some societies put on artists. Because of the changes he propagated through his art, he often faced problems during the communist regime in Albania. After the collapse of that regime, Arapi amplified his creative work. He is still one for the leading figures in the poetry creation in that part of Europe.

Poem:You’ll of course love me

William Stanley Marwin

He was born in 1927 in New York, USA. One of the leading poets in America. In a career spanning five decades he has published numerous books of poetry, the most recent being The Folding Cliffs, The River Sound, Flower and Hand, The Pupil, and Selected Poems 1951-2001 (spring 2005). In 1949, aged 22, Merwin came to Europe where in the following seven years he worked as a tutor and eagerly studied and translated the European poetic tradition from French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin. He lived in France, Portugal and Majorca. During his stay in Europe and after his return to the USA he published his first collections of poetry, A Mask for Janus (1952, chosen as the best first book of poetry by W. H. Auden), The Dancing Bears (1954), Green with Beasts (1956), which immediately promoted him as one of the most talented and original young American poets whose poetry includes bold experiments that had not been seen in the contemporary American poetry before. Soon after his first books he published The Drunk in the Furnace (1960), The Moving Target (1963), The Lice (1957), The Carrier of Ladders (1970, which was awarded The Pulitzer Prize for Literature), The Miners Pale Children (1970, short poetic prose), Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment (1973) and The Compass Flower (1977), Houses and Travellers (1977, short poetic prose). For his poetic opus he has also been awarded the Tanning Prize, The Bollingen Prize, The American Poetry Academy Prize (1974), the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize and the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award. At the end of the 1970s Merwin moved to the Hawaii where he accumulated new experiences that found their way in the imagery of his poetry published in the 80s and the 90s, such as Finding the Islands (1982), Opening the Hand (1983), The Rain in the Trees (1987), Travels (1993), and a collection of short prose pieces and essays - Unframed Originals (1982). Besides being a prolific poet W. S. Merwin has also published a number of translations for which he has received various awards, the highest being American P.E.N. Club Translation Award in 1979.

Tomas Tranströmer

He was born in 1931 in Stockholm. Since attending second year at Södra Latin School, Tranströmer published poems in the school magazine. The commentaries by his Latin language teacher were that the boy writes “obscure modernistic scribbles”. Tranströmer makes his first appearance at the age of 23, diring his studies of History of Religions and the University of Stockholm. His first poetry book of 17 poems reaches success promoting the big talent and artistic value of the poems. He completes his studies at the Psycho-technical Institute in Stockholm in 1956, and later works in the same Institute till 1960. He writes poetry in the meanwhile. His poetry collections are relatively small in volume, but according to the experts on his work, each of them has a background of years-long work. Until the nineteens he won many awards in poetry, both in his country and abroad. He has been translated in more that forty countries. In 1990 he suffered a stroke that made his right side of the body motionless, and his ability to speak was drastically reduced. Besides this accident, Tranströmer continues his poetry writing and playing the piano with his left hand.

Slavko Mihalic

He was born in Karlovac on 16 March 1928 and died on 5 February 2007. He was the most prominent individual in the contemporary Croatian poetry, who with a rich poetic vocabulary, with a new metaphor and convincing words speaks of the direct problems of everyday life. He is honest and convincing while singing of the personal and social motifs, as well as while practicing complex philosophic themes. Works: Chamber Music, 1954; Road in non-existence; 1956; Generous Exile, 1959; Season, 1961; The Last Supper, 1969; Silent Pyres, 1985; Velvet Woman, 1993; Accordeon, 2000

Seamus Heaney

He was born in Mossbawn, North Ireland on 8 July 1939. He is an Irish poet, essay writer and translator. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995. He got the attention from the audience with his first book Death of a Naturalist (1966). He favors the everyday wonders of life. Other books: Door into the Dark (1969), Wintering Out (1972), Station Island (1984), The Haw Lantern (1987) and Seeing Things (1991). He has also written numerous essays.

Poem:Personal Helicon

Poem:Digging

Poem:A Drink of Water

Poem:To the Shade of Zbigniew Herbert

Poem:Known world

Edoardo Sanguineti

He was born in Genoa, on 9 December 1930 anddied on 18 May 2010. He was a writer, public worker and university teacher. He had a polemical attitide towards the hermetism in poetry. Works: poetry: Laborintus (1956), Opus Metricum (1960), Cathameron (1974), Postcards (1978), Notebook (1981), The Newest Testament (1985), Final Conclusions (1997), Things (1999) and others. Hismost significant critical-essay books are: Three studies for Dante (1961), Alberto Moravia (1962), Ideology of language (1965), Critic’s Mission (1987) and others. He complied the anthology The Italian Poetry of the 20th Century and translated a great nmber of the Greek and Roman classic authors (Eshil, Sofokle, Euripid, Aristophan, Seneca, Petronij).

Yves Bonnefoy

He was born in Tours on 24 June 1923. He isa poet and essay writer, translator. He studied philosophy, history and art history. His poetry is hermetic and dense. Besides he’s a poet, he is also known as a critic, author of essays and studies in the field of literature, painting and music. He is an expert and translator of Shakespeare. His first steps in poetry were in 1953 with the poetry book On the Motion and Immobility of Douve. Works: Anti-Plato, 1947; Inscribed Stone, 1959; Breathing Shadow, 1963; In the Trap on the Doorstep, 1975; Beginning and End of Snow, 1991; Further, Faster, 1996 and others.

Lu Yuan

He was born in Wuhan, Hubei province on 3 July 1922. He is one of the most significant contemporary Chinese poets. After the publication of his Selected works, when he won the Great National Award for poetry for his poetry collection Another Poem, he was announced the greatest living Chinese poet. He is also one of the most eminent Chinese translators (Goethe, Rilke, Heigel etc.). Works: New Beginning, Focusing, Narative poem for Human, Blade of Grass, Underburnt Book.

Makoto Ooka

He was born in Mishima on 16 February 1931. He is the most influental Japanese poet; his verses have been published in translations in many world languages; he has written about one hundred theatre scripts, radio and television scripts and screenplays, as well as numerous books with literature criticism and essays. He is the author of the books: The Memory and the Presence (1956), Her Fragnant Flesh (1971), Scetch in Perspective Dedicated to Summer (1972), To a Girl in Springtime (1978), Capital of Water (1981), Message of the Water to its Homeland (1989) and others. In 1978 in Tokio his collected works in 15 voulmes were released.

Poem:Stone and Sculptor

Poem:BECAUSE MEN ARE FLUID

Yehuda Amichai

He was born in Würzburg, Germany on 2 April 1924 and died in Jerusalem on 1 October 2000. He was one of the first Israeli poets writing his poetry in Hebrew. He pblished 13 books of poetry in Hebrew, about ten poetry selections in English (four of which released bilingual), two novels, one of which entitled Not of this Time,Not of this Place (1963) is one of the most readed one in Israel, one short storu collection, three children books and one play collection. His poetry books are pubished in great number ofcopies. He has been translated in twenty languages. He won many awards for literature (Israel) and he is the first foreign poet winning the Literary Lion Award (New York Library). Works: Poems (1948-1962), Jerusalem, 1963, Poetry, SPE,Struga, 1995.

Ted Hughes

He was born in Yorkshire on 17 August 1930 and died on 28 October 1998. He was an English poet who was married to the famous poetess Sylvia Plath who committed suicide. Together with Danial Waissbort in London he edited the literature magazine Modern poetry n translation where they promoted the most popular modern writers of the 20th century. The biggest influence over his work had the work Birds, Beasts and Flowers by D.H. Lawrence. He was fascinated by animals and expresses the “essence” of the living beings. He is the author of the following books: Hawk in the Rain (1957), Luparcal (1960), Crow (1970), Gaudete (1977), Cave Birds (1978), Remains of Elmet (1979) and others.

Gennady Aygi

Born in Shaimurzino, Russian Federation on 31 August 1934 and died on 21 Febuary 2006. He was a Chuvash poet, essay writer and translator; he decides to write in Russian in 1960 (since then he had been writing in Chuvash). His books have been published in many European countries. In 1993 he won the Golden Wreath of SPE. Works: In Chuvash he published seven books: Music for the Whole Life, 1962; In the Nama of the Fathers, 1958, Step, 1964, Illumination, 1971, Gap, 1975, Poems, 1980, Will, 1988, Fields Twins, 1987, Three Poems on Malecichm 1989 and Now Forever Snow.

Ferenc Juhasz

He was born in Bia, Hungary, on 16 August 1928. He is one of the greatest Hungarian and European poets of the 20th century. His first poetry book The Winged Foal was published in 1949, and later on My Faher (1950) and Wasteful Land (1954). His first ten poetry books in the period 1946-1970 have been published in two volumes entitled Love of the Universe. Later on there was another two-volume book published entitled The Boy who Transformed into Deer (1970) and Gete of Secret (1972). The book Golden Sword of Salvation was published in 1973. Works: Dead Blackbird (the biggest Hungarian epos, 1985), Black Eagle Kung (1988), Retrieve of the Deceased (1988) and Undergroung Lily (1991).

Poem:The painter they call Simon

Joseph Brodsky

He was born in Sanct Petersbourg on 24 May 1940 and died in New York on 28 January 1996. He was a Russia poet, a Nobel Prize winner. He has practiced poetry and translation since 1963. The same year he was accused of “parasitism”, whereas his verses were characterized as a mixture of decadence, pessimism, modernism and “sheer babbling”. For that reason he was sentenced to five years exile and forced labor, and after one year he was granted clemency. Then in many countries appeared translations of his poetry, whereas in New York his book Poems and Epic Poems (1965) was published in Russian. Afterwards Stop in the Desert (1970) was published. In 1976 in America he published his book A Part of Speech. In 1976 he won the Nobel Prize. Works: End of the Wonderful Era, 1977, Urania, 1987 and others. His most well-known essay book is Less than One, 1986.

Poem:Part of speech

Thomas Shapcott

He was born in Ipswitch, Australia, on 6 September 1935. He is one of the most significant Australian poets. He has written novels with a great success, as The White Deer of Exile (translated in Macedonian, too). He started publishing verses in 1954. In 1987 in Skopje was published the Anthology of the Contemporary Australian poetry in his selection and his preface. Works: Selected Poems, 1978, Welcome, 1983 and Travelling Cubes, 1987.

Poem:Another Spring

Desanka Maksimovic

Born in Rabrovitsa, Serbia, on 16 May 1898, died in Belgrade on 8 July 1993. A significant Serbian poetess who created valuable and various poetry opus. She was a member of SANU. She won many awards and recognitions. Works: Poetry Collections: Poems, 1924, Childhood Garden, 1927; The Green Knight, 1930; Scent of the Soil, 1955; Captive of the Dreams, 1959; I seek Clemency, 1964; Talk Quietly, 1961; I have no Time, 1973; Chronicle of Perun’s Descendants, 1976; No Man’s Land, 1979; Speech of Love and Landmarks of Memory, 1983. Short stories: Heart’s Madness, 1931 etc. Novels: Rebellious Corn Ear, 1960 etc. She is also notable as a children and youth poet (Spider’s Swing; Singing Stories, etc)

Poem:Apprehension

Tadeusz Różewicz

He was born on 9 October 1921 in Radomsko, Poland. Różewicz belongs to the first generation Polish poets, born and educated after the independence of Poland in 1918. His first youth poems were published in 1938. During the World War II, together with his brother Janusz (also a poet), he was a soldier in the illegel anti-fascistically oriented Army Krayova. Unlike Janusz, who was executed by Gestapo in 1944, Tadeusz survived the war and by the time of his literary debut in 1960, he was the author of twelve highly acclaimed volumes of poetry. He has since also written over fifteen plays. This eruption of dramaturgical energy was also accompanied by major volumes of poetry and prose. Różewicz is considered one of Poland's best post-war poets and most innovative playwrights. Some of his best known plays include: The Card Index, The Interrupted Act, Birth Rate, The Hunger Artist Departs, and White Marriage.

Poem:(Macedonian) Кој е поет

Poem:(Macedonian) Песна пишувана в зори

Poem:(Macedonian) Желба

Poem:Lament

Poem:Among many tasks

Yiannis Ritsos

Yiannis Ritsos (Monemvasia 1 May 1909 - Athens 11 November 1990)- a Greek poet with a hard and dark life-path (lived as a tortured and expelled person, political captive and revolutionist). He made a grandiouse work (80 published poetry books and over 100 000 verses) which helped him succeed in giving his talent a trace of magnificence and universality. His first poetry book was Tractor (1934). Ritsos is a winner of many international awards and recognitions, his poetry has been translated in almost all world languages. He has translated in Greek verses from Blok, Atila Jozhef, Hikmet, Mayakovsky and complied many anthologies. Works: Pyramids (1935), Epitaphios (1936), Song of My Sister (1937), The Old Mazurka in the Rhythm of Rain (1942), Macronisos (1949), Insomnia (1954), Morning Star (1955), Moon Sonatta (1957), Dead Hoise (1962),The Hellenism (1966); drama poems: Phyloctet and Orest, Wall in the Mirror, Testimonies, Corridor and Stairs etc.

Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg (New Jersey, 3 June 1926 - New York, 5 April 1997) - an American poet. Before studying at Columbia College, he worked as a dishwasher, sailor, welder, etc. With the publication of Howl (1957) he become a cultural leader of the youth (beat generation) in America. He traveled all around the world on literature readings and he acted in two movies. Works: Reality Sandwiches, 1963, Planet News, 1968, The Fall of America, 1972, Empty Mirror, 1948, Howl and Other Poems, 1956; Kaddish, 1960.

Poem:A Supermarket in California

Poem:In back of the real

Andrey Voznesensky

Andrei Voznesensky (Moscow, 5 December 1933 - 1 June 2010 Moscow) - a Russian poet, freelance writer. He wrote experimental poetry that has always relied on the radiation of the Russian avant-garde. He researched new possibilities and used sonorous associations and associative threads, grotesque and paradixical metaphore, in the same time relying on architectire and painting in the building of his verses. Works: Parabolic Ballads, 1960, Mosaics, 1960, Triangular Pear, 1962, Antiworlds, 1964, Achilean Heart, 1966, Sound’s Shadow, 1970, Violoncello Oakleaf, 1975, Offending, 1978, Uncontrolled, 1981.

Poem:The ballad of the full stop

Nichita Stanescu

Nichita STANESKU (Ploeshti, 7 May 1933 - Bucharest, 17 November 1983) - Romanian poet, magazine editor. With his first poetry collection Aim of Love (1960) he became famous. With each new poetry book he confirmed his new verses free of the burden of the past. Works: A Vision of Feelings (1964), The Right to Time(1965), The Egg and the Sphere (1967), Vertical Red (1967), The Unwords (1969), In Sweet Classical Style (1070), The Greatness of Cold(1972), The Clearness of Heart (1975); The Re-reading Book (1972).

Poem:Sad love song

Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan Agyeya

Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan 'Agyeya' (Lakno, India, 7 May 1911 - New Delhi, 8 March, 1989) - the most significant Indian poet in Hindi; in the literature he is introduced with the pen-name Agyeya (“Beyond comprehension”). He is an author of 15 poetry books, three novels and many essay collections. He worked as an editor of magazines and complier of snthologies. His lyrics is specefic for its intimism and philosophy insights. Works: Shimmer, Electricity Islands, Moment of the Green Grass, Loss Messenger, Insane Hunter, Signs and Silences.

Blaze Koneski

Blaze Koneski (Nebregovo Village, Prilep, 19 December 1921 - Skopje, 7 December 1993) - a philologist, poet, university professor. He was the most prominent figure of the Macedonistics in the period after the Liberation of Macedonia. He was a member of the Committee for standardization of the Macedonian literary language and its most outstanding representative (complier of the greatest part of the First Macedonian Ortography book, 1945 and the extended edition of the Macedonian Ortography with a Ortographic dictionary, 1950). He was the author of the fundamental works of the Macedonian Language (grammar, dictionary, history, historic phonology). He sarted his primary school at the age of nearly six in his birthplace, in order to prevent the school from closing because of the small number of students. After finishing the first grade, he moved to Prilep, where he finishes his eight-grade primary school. Because of the closing of the General Secondary School in Prilep, he continued studying Secondary school in Kragujevac and he graduates in 1939. He joins the literature life in the Secondary School, becoming the editor of the school magazine “Podmladak”, writing poems in Serbian, just in the beginning of 1939 to make a turnover and start writing in Macedonian. His first poem in Macedonian i Letter to a Mother (by the example of the respective poem by Mayakovski). At the persuation of his friends and the wish of his parents, he continues his education at the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade. Just after a single semester at the faculty, he realised that his interest wasn’t the medicine. In the summer semester of 1940 he transfered to the Faculty of Philosophy, at the Department of Slavistics, choosing a rare combinaton: Yugoslav Literature under Major A, and under major B - Russian Literature and Russian Language. Attracted by the poetry of some Polish authors (Mickiewicz, Słowacki etc.), he attends a facultative course on Polish Language. His studying in Belgrade is connected to his discovery of the folk activities of Marko Cepenkov published in the famous Bulgarian Collection of Folk Art. His introduction to this material helps him make the first draft of the Grammar of the Macedonian language and elaboration of the Prilep dialect since he was a student. A great number of these notes are used after the Liberation, in the shaping of his Grammar (1952, 1954) and the monography Prilep Dialect (1948). Starting of the World War II on the territory of Yugoslavia prevents his studying in Belgrade, so he was forced to continue his studies in Sophia. At the University they recognize his first three semesters from Belgrade and he obtains BA degree in 1944. Working on his seminar paper on the work of the reliable Salvist Dimitar Matov, he comes across significant data on the development of the Macedonian Language. Among the other things, he read the extensive review of Aleksandar Todorov - Balan on Krste Misirkov’s work Za Makedonckite Raboti. Besides his constant insisting on coming directly to this monumental work on the Macedonian peculiarity, this was not ensured to him. However, the thought of havind a deeper insight into it never abandons him. He uses the first possible opportunity after the Liberation, when the social conditions changed, to search for the book. In June 1945 he goes to Sofia, gets the book, makes some notes and immediately publishes in the daily newspapers the extensive article One Macedonian Book and in doing that he makes the first popularisation of Misirkov in Macedonia. The autumn of 1944, even before the complete liberation of the country, he is already in the temporary state and political centre of the free territory in Gorno Vranovci Village near Veles. There he is a translator, corrector and proofreader of the newspapers and other publications, there he holds lectures on the development of the Macedonian Language and its literature character to a wide auditorium of cultural and social activists. After the Liberation Koneski is allocated a proofreader of the MacedonianTheatre: he translates shorter texts for plays and the piece Plato Krechet by Aleksandar Korneychuk, which marked the working of the Drama on MNT on 3 April 1945 with a play; he also writes the one-act play Hungry Hen Dreams of Millet, which was shown at the theatre on the New Year’s Eve of 1945. He exposes to the wider public in May 1945 with his lecture The Macedonian Literature and the Macedonian Standard language at the National University in Skopje. Sinse spring 1945 he works in the Ministry of Education, he takes part in many activities in the area of education and culture, as well as in the founding of the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje. He is one of the founders of the Faculty of Philosophy (1946, of the Institute for Macedonian Language “Krste Misirkov” (1953), of MASA (1967, First President), the Writers’ Association of Macedonia(1947, First President), of the Association (Union) for Macedonian Language and Literature (1954), of the Macedonian Slavistics Committee (1963), of the magazine “Macedonian Language” (1950, First Chief Editor) etc. He was a Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy (Philology) in Skopje, Chancellor of the University Ss Cyril and Methodius in Skopje (1958-1960). He was also a member of the Academies of Science and Arts of Croatia (1962), Serbia (1963), Slovenia (1963), Boznia and Herzegovina (1969), and later on of Vojvodina and Montenegro, as well as of Austria and Poland. He was a honorary Doctor of the Universities of Chicago (1968), Wroclaw (1970), as well as the University Ss Cyril and Methodius in Skopje. He won the Awards of Njegosh and Herder, the AVNOJ Award, “Skender Kulenovic”, Writers’ Association of USSR etc. The Macedonian scientific and cultural public showed its respect towards the name and work of Koneski by naming the Faculty of Philology in Skopje by his name and by setting up the Foundation for Macedonian Language “Nebregovo”. Works: A Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language (I 1952, II 1954), Dictionary of the Macedonian Language (I 1961, II 1965, III 1966, editor), History of the Macedonian language (1965), Historical Phonology of the Macedonian Language (Heilderberg, 1983 in English; Skopje, 2001 in Macedonian). He is author of many other imporatnt works: Macedonian Textbooks of 19th Century- An article on the History of the Macedonian Revival (1949), Prilep Dialect (1949), Macedonian Literature in 19th century - Brief review and texts (1950), On the Mecedonian Standard Language (1952), The Apostle of Vranesnica (1956), The Language of the Macedonian Folk Poetry (1971), Speeches and Essays (1972), The Macedonian 19th century. Linguistic, literary and historic texts (1986), Images and Themes (1987), Macedonian places and names (1991). He also wrote the poetry books: Land and Love (1948), Poems (1953), The Embroideress (1955), Sterna (1966), Hand-shaking (1969), Poems Old and New (1979), The Fountains (1984), Collected Poems (1987), Meeting in Heaven (1988), Church (1988), Golden Peak (1989), Seizmograph (1989), Black Ram (1993). He also translated the works: The Mountan Laurel by Njegosh (1947), Lyrical Intermezzo by H. Heine (1952), Othello By Shakespeare (1953), Savica’s Baptization by F. Preshern (1980), as well as poems by Aleskandar Blok, Adam Mickiewicz, Vladimir Mayakovski, Desanka Maksimovic etc.

Poem:The angel in St.Sophia

Miroslav Krlezha

Miroslav Krlezha (Zagreb, 7 July 1893 - Zagreb, 29 December 1981), the most versatile Croatian writer, with outstanding creative activity, and the most influential literature personbetween the two World Wars. After the World War II he was a mamber of the Pariament, an academic, director of the Lexicographical Institute in Zagreb. In his lyrical poems and epic poems, Krlezha’s sryle varies from impressionism to expressionism and satyric expression. In the middle of his creational work lays his playwright acivity. Extensive and diversified, it is a permanent confirmation of Krlezha’s inner need to expose his poetic world in a scene, dialogue form, in a passionate collision with his own paradoxes. Krlezha is an author of a vast aesthetic opus where he argues the theoretic literature and painting issues, in the same time leading uncompromising polemics with his contemporaries (My Fight with Them, 1932). His most mature works are the plays from the so-called Glembays cycle: Gospoda Glembajevi, 1929, In Agony, 1928 and Leda, 1939. His novelistic and short story work had fully grasped the war and post-war themes (The Croatian God Mars, 1922, The Return of Filip Latinovic, 1932). A special place in Krlezha’s opus and in the Croatian literature take Petrica Kerenpuh’s Ballads (1936).

Hans Magnus Enzensberger

He is one of the most famous contemporary German writers. His poetry is characterised as “alchemy of the simple elements of the spoken language”. Hans Magnus Enzensberger (born on 11 November 1929 in Kaufbeuren) is a German poet, translator and editor. He has written under the pseudonym Andreas Thalmayr. He lives in Munich. Enzensberger studied literature and philosophy at the universities of Erlangen, Freiburg and Hamburg, and at the Sorbonne in Paris, receiving his doctorate in 1955 for a thesis about Clemens Brentano's poetry. Until 1957 he worked as a radio editor in Stuttgart. He participated in several gatherings of Group 47. He passes a certain period in Castro’s Cuba. Between 1965 and 1975 he edited the magazine "Kursbuch" (“Schedule”). Since 1985 he has been the editor of the prestigious book series Die Andere Bibliothek (“Another Library”), published in Frankfurt, and now containing almost 250 titles. Enzensberger is the founder of the monthly TransAtlantik. His own work has been translated into more than 40 languages. Magnus’s younger brother, Christian, is a writer, too. Enzensberger has a sarcastic, ironic tone in many of his poems. For example, the poem "Middle Class Blues" consists of various typicalities of middle class life, with the phrase "we can't complain" repeated several times, and concludes with "what are we waiting for?". Many of his poems also feature themes of civil unrest over economic and class based issues. Though primarily a poet and essayist, he also makes excursions into theater, film, opera, radio drama, reportage, translation, and he is also the author of several books fro children. The Australian writer Roderick Gates describes Enzensberger, besides Rudolph Bardo, “as one pf the rare left-oriented Germans to have succeeded in predicting the collapse of the comunism and USSR (“Judgements from the Past, Global Echo”). Awards and recognitions: 1963 Georg Büchner Prize, 1985 Heinrich-Böll Prize, 1993 - 1993 Erich-Maria-Remarque Peace Prize, 1998 - Heinrich-Heine-Preis, 2002 - Prince of Asturia’s Communications and Humanities award, 2006 - D’Aununtio Award for Lifetime Opus. Important works: “Defense of the Wolves”, poetry, 1957, “Politics and Crime”, essays, 1964, “Writing of the Blind”, 1964; “Germany, Germany among Other Things”, 1967, “The Havana Inquiry”, prose, 1970, “Conversation with Marks and Engels”, essays, 1970, “Mausoleum - balades from the History of the Progress”, 1975, The Sinking of the Titanic” versepos, 1978, “The Music of the Future”, stories, 1991, “Air’s Daughters”, play, 1992, “Where were you, Robert?”, novel, 1998, “the Number Devil” novel, 1999, “Stories 1950-2005”, 2006.

Rafael Alberti

Rafael Alberti (Puerto de Santa, 16 December 1902-28 October 1999) - a poet, painter, playwright; he had created one of the most impressive and rich lyric opuses of the Contemporary Spanish poetry. He starts with the lyricism of the neopopularism (Sailor on Dry Land, 1924, The Mistress, 1925, The Dawn of the Wallflower, 1925, To the Angels, 1928). His poetry was later turned to the motifs and themes of the social and political reality (poems of the street and the everyday life), whereas during the Civil War he was a poet and a soldier of the Republic (poems of war, victim and faith). Living in political emigration (Europe and Latin America), he writes of the bitter foreigh land, lyrics full of nostalgia and desire. When he came back home, he was welcomed as the greatest living poet of Spain. Works: Between the Carnation and the Sword, 1945, High Tide, 1945, On Painting, 1948; Back to Life Faraway, 1954.

Poem:To the land of Macedonia

Eugene Guillevic

Eugene Guillevic (5 August 1907 - 19 March 1997) is one of the most significant French poets from the second half of the 20th century. Professionally, he went under just the single name “Guillevic”. He was born in Carnac, Brittany. After a BA in mathematics, he was placed in the Administration of Registration in Alsace, and later on he was a part of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs. He became a communist sympathizer during the Spanish Civil War, which lead him in 1942 to become an active member of the Communist Party. There he joined with Paul Eluard. He remained faithful to the party until 1980. In his work, Guillevic remains true to his concepts of the world. After a period of resistance, of rebellion against the social order, he starts his attempt to tame the world and its silence. He rejected the mataphysical approach towards the creative work and he writes concisely, honestly, passionately and suggestively. He uses almost no metaphores. In Guillevic’s poetry their place is taken over by comparisons. In 1976 Guillevic won the Grand Award for Poetry of the Académie française, and he was awarded with a national recognition of this character in 1984. His poetry is tough, dense and soaked in great love for people, plants, animals, for the basic life substances (fire, light, tide). Works: 31 Sonnets, 1954, Carnac, 1961; Spheres, 1963; Amphibians, City, Euclidic etc.

Poem:The parallels

Artur Lundkvist

Artur Lundkvist (Oderljunga, Sweden, 3 March 1096 - Stokcholm, 10 July 1991) - eminent Swedish lyricist, short story writer and editor; president of the Nobel Prize Committee. He wrote many novels, essay books, travelogues and authobiographic prose. Works: books of poetry: Embers (1928), Naked Life(1929), The Blue Man (1932); Agadir (1961); Elegies to Pablo Neruda (1975); lyrical prose books: Malinga (1952); Mirror for Day and Night (1953).

Poem:The ants

Leopold Sédar Senghor

Leopold Sédar Senghor (Joal, 9 October 1906 - Paris, 20 December 2001) - Senegalese poet and statesman. He wrote in French. From 1960 till 1980 he was a President of Senegal. With his poetry collections he thoroughly advocated the dignity of the Black man, their rights and freedom. His poetry is sensual, elegiac, and nostalgic under the influence of Paul Claudel and Sen-John Pers and of the troubadoure poetry. He attaches a great importance to the musicality of the verse, the monotonous rhythm, similar to the African melody, and he gives an exqisite authentic sound to his verses. He is the complier of An Anthology of the New Black and Madagascan Poetry written in French, for which Jean-Paul Sartre wrote an introduction entitled “Orphée noire” (“Black Orpheus”, 1948. Works: Chants d'ombre (1945), Hosties noires (1948), Nocturnes (1961), Lettres de d'hivernage (1972).

Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca

Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca, (Istanbul, 26 August 1914) - Turkish poet. In 1959 he opened a bookstore and started publishing a literature magazine. He published his first poetry book in 1935, under the title The World Drawn in Air, whicimmediately turned the attention of poetry admirers and literature criticism. He introduced new elements in each new poetry book. He didn’t belong to any poetry school. He published about fifteen poetry collections, among which the following are his most important ones: The Child and God, The Epic of Cakir, Mother Earth

Pablo Neruda

He was born in Parral, on 12 August 1904 and died in Santiago on 23 September 1973. He was one of the most significant Latun American poets, a Chilean, left oriented. He published many short stories collections, and he started his literature work with love poetry. Nowever, he soon oriented at social themes of open and confrontational expression with highlighted surrealistic elements and he became an important representative of the committed poetry. His epic poem Spain in Heart (1937) was dedicated to the advanced forces of the republican Spain. His most significant work is Canto General (General Song) (1950). In this work the author elatedly speaks of the past and presence of South America, while he bitterly talks of the nation’s doom. In 1970 he obtained the Nobel Prize for Literature. Works: Sunset Poems, 1923, Twenty Love Poems and One Song of Despair, 1924, A Hundred Love Sonnets, 1960. In Macedonian his book Poetry is published in 1972.

Poem:Curse

Eugenio Montale

He was born in Genoa on 12 October 1896 and died in Milano on 12 September 1981. Together with Ungaretti, he is the most prominent figure of the Italian Hermeticism. He was intensively working as a journalist. He wrote literature and music criticism. He was a Senator for Life in the Italian Senate. The Meditterranean in his poems is elevated to a symbol of the humanistic civilisation. He won the Nobel Prize of Literature in 1975. Bibliography: Cuttlefish Bones, 1925, The Storm and Other Things, 1956; Satura, 1971 and Diary 71 and 72, 1973.

Wystan Hugh Auden

He was born in York, on 21 November 1907, and died in Vienna on 17 June 1973. An English poet in the spotlight with his four plays in collaboration with Christopher Isherwood who used the experience of an ‘epic theatre’ by Bertol Brecht in his testimonial presentation of ideas. Works: Poems (1930), Orators (1932), The Dance of Death (1933), Look, Stranger! (1936), Spain (1937). He also wrote the epic poems: A New-Year Letter; he Sea and the Mirror, An Age of Anxiety published between 1941 and 1948.

Poem:Prime

Mak Dizdar

Mak Dizdar, (Stolac, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 17 October 1917 - 14 July 1971), with his collection Stone Sleeper (1966) became one of the most remarkable poets in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Exercising empathy with the language and the world of the bogomils’ tombstones and bringing back to life the distant past of his nation and his country from the tombstone inscriptions, he gave poetry records from his own views on the people and history, creating in the same time a new poetic language as an expected reflection of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian reality. Works: Vidopole Night, 1936, Woman Swimmer, 1954; Cruelties of Circle, 1960 and others.

Poem:Dark Blue River

Miodrag Pavlovic

He was born in Novi Sad, on 28 November 1928 - Serbian poet and essay writer, follower of the tradition of intellectual poetry, with hermetic accents (87 Poems, 1952, The Pillar of Memory, 1953, Octaves, 1957, Primeval Milk, 1962, Great Wandering, 1969). He had attracted great attention as an essay writer (The Terms of Poetry, 1958, Eight Poets, 1964), as an anthology complier (Anthology of the Serbian Poetry, 1964, Anthology of the Contemporary English Poetry, 1956 - in collaboration with S. Brkic). He is the author of the essay and liteature criticism collections: Foam’s Diary, 1972, Poetry and Culture, 1974. His book Quarrels was published in Macedonian, translated by Petre M. Andreevski in Skopje in 1970.

Poem:Quarrels

László Nagy

He was born in Iszkáz, Hungary, on 17 July 1925 in Buda, and died on 30 January 1978. He is a founder of the new creative expression in the contemporary Hungarian poetry. He won the highest Hungarian awards. In 1969, relying on literal translations, he translated poetries of several Macedonian authors for the Anthology of the Macedonian Poetry, published in Budapest. Works: Cease, Pain (1949), The Infantryman and the Rye (1951), Engaged to the Sun (1954), The Joy of Sundays (1956); Frosty May (1957); Eternal Hymn (1965); Exiled in Poetry (1973); Bells are Coming to Take Me (1978). In 1970 his poetry book Exiled in Poetry was published translatied in Macedonian by Paskal Gilevski.

Poem:The one hiding in the song

Robert Rozhdestvensky

Robert Rozhdestvensky (Kosikha, 10 February 1932 - Moscow , 3 November 1994) - a Russian poet, a professional writer. With his poetry lines concisely and precisely written he caused spontaneous delight at wide audiences. His rhetorical verses contain a certain journalistic character, abundant in rhythm and enthsiasm, inspired by the literature tradition, especially Mayakovsky. His book Requiem (1961) has left a great impression with lines dedicated to the homaland war against fascism. His book Man is Born, is published in Macedonian by “Misla”, Skopje in 1970.

Bulat Okudzhava

He was born in Moscow, on 9 May 1924 and died in Clamart on 12 June 1997. He was an eminent Russian poet and songwriter. He composed a great number of his songs and achieved a big success in the ex-Soviet Union. His poetry style is chamber and lyrical. His poetry book Be Well, Schoolboy (1961) considers the theme of participation of young people in the Fatherland War against Facsism and it has been translated into many languages. He wrote prose and drama works as well as screenplays.

Poem:The little tin solider of my son

Tomaž Šalamun

Tomaž Šalamun is a Slovenian poet, born in 1941 in Zagreb, Croatia, and considered to be one of the great postwar Central European poets. Šalamun has taught at the Universities of Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Massachusetts, Pittsburgh and Richmond, and was invited to be member of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 1971. He spent several years as Cultural Attaché to the Slovenian Consulate in New York. Nine of his books of poetry have been published in English, the latest being The Book for My Brother (2006), Poker (2003, 2008), Row (2006), and Woods and Chalices (2008). His books have appeared in nineteen languages. In 2007, Šalamun received the European Prize in Münster in Germany. His latest collection of poety is entitled There's the Hand and There's the Arid Chair (2009). He has two books translated into Macedonian: Amber (2004) and Glagoli na sonceto (2008). In 1993 he received New Macedonia Prize.

Poem:(Macedonian) Елен

Poem:(Macedonian) Црвени цвеќа

Poem:To Read: To Love

Mongany Wally Serote

Mongane Wally Serote was born in Sophiatown, north of Johannesburg, in 1944. He attended school in Alexandra. The political conditions of the time led him to develop an interest in the Black Consciousness (BC) philosophy and the anti-apartheid struggles of the day. Upon leaving school, Serote began working as a journalist. More widely known as “Wally”, Serote is generally regarded as one of South Africa’s pre-eminent poets and writers. He is renowned as one of the Soweto poets who embodied the literary revival of black voices in the 1970s. Serote’s poems projected a stark and realistic picture of the apartheid regime. His resistance to the unjust regime extended outside of poetry through active involvement in political resistance by joining the African National Congress (ANC).

Mateja Matevski

Poet, literary and theatre critic, essayist and translator who was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1929. He is author of 19 books of poetry and about 10 selected anthologies, his poetry has been published on all continents and translated into 22 languages. He has won almost all national awards and 16 international prizes for his poetic work. Mateja Matevski is a member of the Macedonian Academy of Science and Art and won the Golden Wreath of Poetry at the International festival “ Struga Poetry Evenings“.

List of awarded poets

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