Jim Kacian: ... GATHER

the men of the several countries ― zoran from serbia, ban'ya from japan, ion from romania, milivoj of holland via croatia, zinovy the russian jew, alain from bretagne, myself the lone american ― into the house of a slovene born bulgarian and bearing a yugoslavian passport fill with euphoria from a successful weekend of talk drink and high emotion and they will sing and what songs! traditional songs of the many lands full of pathos and longing the japanese a little trifle but somehow right the russian full of strast and bravura the chanson pastorale melodic and light as air and zoran declining to sing since he has played only rock n' roll and such music is not fit for such a night in such company i sing "Shenandoah" and am pounded on the back and proclaimed to have great soul i am here among men and with their spirit . . .

passing the jug
the warmth
of many hands

*

. . . skup

ljudi nekoliko zemalja ― zoran iz srbije, ban'ja iz japana, jon iz rumunije, milivoj hrvatski holandjanin, zinovi ruski jevrejin, alen iz bretanje, jedini amerikanc sam ja ― u kuci slovenca bugarskog porekla sa jugoslovenskim pasosem punog euforije zbog uspesnog vikenda kafanskog rasgovora i jakih emocija i oni ce pevati ali kakve pesme ! tradicionalne pesme raznih zemalja pune patosa i ceznje japanske pomalo saljive ali nekako lepe ruske pune strasti i bravura pastoralne sansone melodicne i svetle kao vazduh i zoranovo odbijanje da peva jer je svirao samo rokendrol i slicno lici na kapric ove noci i ovog drustva ja pevam "Senandoa" i bivam oboren na ledja i proglasen velikom dusom i tu sam medju ljudima i njihovim duhom

putujuci jugom
toplota
mnogih ruku

by Jim Kacian

Winchester, Virginia

first published in second spring (red moon press 2001)
slovenian translation by Dimitar Anakiev