A Poem about the Father who Ate his Watches

by Kristin Dimitrova

On his left hand he wore
three watches.
'Why do you need all three?'

'This one' he said pointing to the first
'shows what time it will be
in half an hour.'

'This one' pointing to the second
'shows what time it was
half an hour ago.'

'As for this one' pointing to the third
'it shows what the time is
now.'

'All right, would you give me the exact time?'
'Ha-ha, don’t worry,
it will come.'

Trans. from the Bulgarian by Gregory O’Donoghue

From: 
A Visit to the Clockmaker, Southword Editions, Ireland, 2005.




Kristin Dimitrova's picture

ABOUT THE POET ~
Kristin Dimitrova (born May 1963 in Sofia, Bulgaria) is a poet, writer and translator., Her books of poetry include Jacob’s Thirteenth Child (1992), A Face Under the Ice (1997), Closed Figures (1998), Faces with Twisted Tongues (1998), Talisman Repairs (2001), The People with the Lanterns (2003) and The Cardplayer’s Morning (2008)., A Visit to the Clockmaker (2005) was published by Southword Editions, Ireland, and My Life in Squares (2010) by Smokestack Books, UK. Dimitrova is a five-times winner of different national poetry-of-the-year awards, among which the Association of Bulgarian Writers Annual Prize (2003)., Among her works of fiction are the novel Sabazius (2007), winner of the Hristo G. Danov National Award in 2008 and shortlisted for the Canetti Prize, and the two short stories collections: Love and Death under the Crooked Pear Trees (2004) and The Secret Way of the Ink (2010). Dimitrova is the co-scriptwriter of The Goat (2009), a feature film directed by Georgi Djulgerov., Dimitrova’s translation of a selection of poems by English metaphysical poet John Donne, The Anagram (1999), brought her the Union of Bulgarian Translators Award., Poems, short stories and essays by Kristin Dimitrova have been translated into 22 languages and published in 25 countries.


Last updated October 02, 2011