A BIRD WITH LITTLE BELLS

When it flew over the house
the sky appeared short
and its swift shadow immense

- It\'s the bird with little bells
my father whispered to me
Don\'t look at it with your eyes wide open
it could make a nest in the attic
and pretty soon
a flock of birds
could defeat its beauty

and a chorus song is a sad song
flying in a flock reflects helplessness
come off its shadow carefully
let if fly unencumbered
stuffed wings make the sky meaningless

***
RETURN FOREWARDS

I go backwards
maybe through the wall maybe beyond time
everything that stands behind me
is hardly an obstacle
just make sure people are in sight

I hide from the sun bareheaded
my heated forehead brightens the path as I walk on
aware that my paces determine
at what speed the Earth revolves
that my perverse thoughts affect
its safety and beauty

Going backwards everything that was far away
seems to become nearer and closer

O how ethereal is the tree
with the dense canopy of mythical names
o how light is the child
that with a hard shoe kicks its trunk foot
its softest spot

I go backwards without stopping
and that\'s why you can\'t stop my dream
like you do with a bad soap opera
or with a thread between the blades of your scissors
when you blindly head forwards
with a bundle of dreams in your arms
the dreams from which I warn you in vain
about Myself about Us about Those who are coming

***
PAINTING A FAMILY PORTRAIT

a painter decided to paint a family portrait
with a crayon he rapidly drew a sketch
then moved aside and stopped to watch
he\'d managed everyone\'s character traits
achieved the third dimension too
the so-called painting depth
which was probably gained
by a figure of an unborn child

the paint was quite subdued sfumatic
with a barely oscillating intensity
hinting at the harmony and psyche of one and the same gene
painted through time
but Alas

the same day already with an energetic move of a paintbrush
he painted a wave instead of the father\'s head
and it seemed to him that the painting was clearing
and more suggestive

the next day he made the mother\'s face look like a pebble
taken over by golden moss
and it seemed the painting gained
on expressivity and strength

on the third day he erased brothers and sisters from the great
family canvas and what was undeniable
the painting got an unexpected light
so he was forced at once to use the concentrated
ultramarine blue to paint the pure faces of the children
and the painting suddenly acquired a desired gravity
with lots of endless sorrow

then out of the blue behind his back there yelled
a frightened woman - Don\'t you dare touch me -
the painter grabbed his paintbrush and smudged his wife\'s face
that had been persistently gazing from behind the easel
then moved aside and looked for the last time
at the family portrait and noticed at last
that there was no space for his own face

PERFECT he whispered to himself
and signed it as a SELF-PORTRAIT

biografia:

Predrag Bjelosević, a poet, playwright and translator was born in Banja Luka 29th May 1953. where he still lives and works as director and art director of the Children\'s theatre of Republic of Srpska. He obtained his Master degree in puppet shows direction at the National academy of film and theatre art in Sofia in 1999.

Books of poetry:
Bitter Malt, 1977; Face on the Nape, 1979; Il linguagio del silenzio, [ chosen poems in the Italian language] Naples 1982; Grate and Dream, 1985; From interspace, 1987; Speech, Silence, 1995; Water Shirt, 1996 [chosen poems]; Fear of the Light, 2001; Le Rz, 2002, Paris [chosen poems in the French language]; Shadow and Heavens, 2005.

Books of poems for children:
Rz Brzotrz and toothpick Sofija, 1990; The sad prince, 2000; A dot on a picnic, 2009.
Short stories and tales:
Stories from Brklbrlk, \'Povelja\' publishing house from Kraljevo, 2009; Walking without head, publishers: Art Scena and Besjeda, Banja Luka 2010.

Short stories and tales \'Walking without head\', won the prestigious award of the Cultural Centre in Sremski Krlovci, Pavle Markovic Adamov, 2010 as the best book of stories in the Serbian language.

His poetry has been awarded with numerous significant awards: Trebinjske večeri poezije, 1978 for the book of poems Bitter Malt [74th Dučićeva nagrada]; Udruzenje knjizevnika za Bos. Krajinu [for the book of poems From Interspace] 1987; Pečat varosi sremskokarlovačke, 1996 [ for the book Speech, Silence] and others.

Poetry of Predrag Bjelosevic can be found in many anthologies of contemporary serbian and bosnian poetry and poetry for children. His poetry has been translated into Italian, French, German, Polish, Russian, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Macedonian, and Bulgarian language. His poetry has been studied at many universities of Slavic studies in Europe. At the university in Bern and Hamburg in 1998 and 1999 it was studied as a part of contemporary poetry of Yugoslav people [from 1970 to 1990].

He translated poetry of Russian poets into Serbian: Valery Bryusov, Nicolay Gumilev, Roberta Rozdestvenski, Bella Ahmadulina, Arsenij Tarkovsky, Vjačeslav Kuprijanov, Alexandar Kushner, Alexandar Ibrahimov, and tales of Aleksandr Kuprin.

Occasionally he writes essays and literary and art criticism. Drama texts, scripts and dramatizations for children and adults have been successfully performed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria.

He is the author of the book about theatre play \'The Sad Prince\' in 2002; and monograph of The Children\'s theatre of Republic of Srpska \'Banjaluka\'s house of dreams\' in 2006; and international collection of essays on contemporary puppetry named \'Puppetry today\' in 2007.

The play \'Sad prince\' [theatre of shadows], set according to his lyric fairy-tale has, been performed with a great success for more then ten years on European festivals for children and adults: [ BITEF, 98, Belgrade; \'\'Zlatni delfin \'\', Varna 99.; \'\'Kongres koegzistencije balkanskih naroda kroz umjetnost\'\', Thessaloniki 2000.; \'\'Promocija savremene umjetnosti BiH\'\', London 2002.; International puppet theatres: Bijalsko Biala [Poland] 2000. Festival dedicated to name of Sergej Obrascova, Moscow 2003.; Sofia, Perugia, Kremona, Pecs 2007. etc. According to the play Bulgarian National television made a television version \'The sad prince\' in Sofia in 1999 with the actors from Children\'s theatre of Republic of Srpska.

bjelosev@teol.net