if you don't want me deep
then don't be surprised to break against shallow

i breathe no matter what

my antidote
this urge is strong in me
to fight for my survival

and even if not you
not me
not us
and not enough desire

i'll find my way to go
and many other stars
to follow.

through the frozen satin
we began to so savagely scream

but nothing could bring
us relief

thankfully, birds kept to sing

and in struggle
that never was seen

we managed to walk
fall
and shatter the screen

behind which
was the realm
where our mutual dream
wore the dress
of all shades
and colors

so we finally started to live.

Have you ever seen a leafless tree in the middle of Spring? What would you think if you saw one?

Poor tree, it’s probably dying – this is what I would definitely find among a flush of different thoughts in my head at the sight of this picture. I would feel sad seeing it bare and weak standing among the countless green ones around it. I would think, it was unfair.

Here’s what happened to me a few years ago. I moved from a noisy city to a small town framed at both sides by vast fields and woods. Place that I personally believe to be wildlife heaven. It’s the place where a plain crown looks like a fashion model and hedgehogs are enjoying their bust lives on your backyard.

It was Spring and everything around stood in magnif...

my ego dissolved
in the line of fire
right across horizon

fell to pieces
in the chirping sound
coming from
tall trees
that stood like a wall

floundered in thickness
of colors and blues
changing its form
and facing new course

i was approved
and decided
no matter what
to get my second rebirth.

dress me like a queen
in silk of tender words
and glowing gems
of a delicate touch
put them all atop
of me
i care no more
about crown
but only of the way
it feels - the only thing
i am allowed
to take with me
when time is gone.

this dance for two
where only one is dancing

what is the price for a platonic love
these days?

one pair of shoes
the other feet are barely

standing on the floor
while soaring in the mood

they all are trying dance
like bony dolls
that ran away 
from their master
refusing stay in safe
hands of puppeteer

this music plays
making life to whirl
but only few can feel it
and only one can hear.

How low is your bathtub?

People come into our lives with different attitudes, different world views, different goals. As a person who is ‘lucky’ to be born with overly friendly nature, I know how painful it can be to let a wrong person inside. How at times unbearable is to see someone you considered your friend and your ally turning out to be nothing more but a toxic root that all this time was poisoning your life.

I’m sure you’ve met people who, whether intentionally or not, make you feel low. They drain you, discourage you, set you into a mindset that makes the world around you look as hopeless as never before. Slowly your life turns as cold as at the bottom of a bathtub. But the worst, you never know why.

As social creatures, even...

your dagger in my starving chest
is tipping to the tender flesh

of heart that beats
for no one anymore

i trusted love
but trust is overrated

cause love won't care to trust
how many souls got lost
in hunger of its senseless liberty

like walker on the moon
it broods all over human wounds

promising the cure
but burning all to dust

in death, it's sore
in life, it won't simply last.

i want to fall in love
but so afraid of falling

tripping over leg
that was supposed to hold me

following my dreams
and then forgetting road

as if all lights went off
and left the space of earth

i want to fall in love
but so afraid of falling

through rabit hole of elusive
existence of tommorow

believing that is endless
forever serves as well

name stars,
watch how fall comets
and be just two of us
in world of sensless mess

complete what never was completed
by holding hands
and choosing ways to fit
in our world that we
never stop to build

and then someday wake up
in empty bed, 
in quiet...

i was left in the solace
of my chaos
among misplaced things
i've been owning
for life

in silence of figures
between arrows
of my dusted and bleeding
insides

but i laid my palm
for the oath
on the altar of mind
through suffer
bridged two ends
of the same rope

reached both hands
in a gush of blisfull
excitement

i could see you as clear as day
on the knees and erect like statue
i could hear you through the whips of breeze
even though my soul was fractured

and through poison
of mundane pain

i discovered a life
in the dead of the sea 
of your presence and your absence.

How do you learn the mastery of literary translation? By translating.

The more you translate the better you get. But there is a side effect and I'm just going to call it what it is – over-confidence.

In real life, confidence helps us to move up the professional ladder, to get more friends or to achieve the boldest dreams we could only have. And yet, according to the law of the balance, good things are good in a right amount. Overdose of any good can be a cause of the most surprising in scale disasters.

Over-confidence in literary translation is like driving Bugatti through the streets of London in a doped state. In other words, not a good idea. But I’ll try to keep metaphors aside and get straight to the business.

Being a ...

Who would think that staying at home can be so challenging and tough?! I’m sure, most of us dreamed of a week or better a month off work. But now when we have it, it doesn't feel as satisfying as we imagined it would.

But, don’t panic. Pandemic can keep us in lockdown for weeks or even months, but it can't imprison our spirit and it, for sure, can't stop us from growing personally and professionally.

Tough times are not to break us but to give new opportunities for a change.

It's time to reset our mindset and just to take a moment to look around at things that in the chaos of daily responsibilities we had no time to even notice.

For some, it may be just the right tim...

When I started writing QV, which is my debut novel, I had this vague and at the same time clear picture of what the story was about.

It was about Death. Love. Unethical (in some way) Science. Friendship. Hopes. Dreams. Secrets. Family Dramas. Human spirit. Mysteries. It was all about world that existed on the bones of another world. 

The motto – what dead is dead, was not working anymore in that new world on the pages on my book.

But you know how it is with stories. They come in dozens. Some leave without even as much as a hi, some stay. This one came as a storm, out of nowhere it shook the clear sky above my head. I grabbed it without thinking. I was sure I could see the story as clear as I never saw any story before. But what a tricky thing. It...