Alisa Velaj

SHE

She is calmer than her songs
She falls asleep watching the twisted veins of trees
She is luckier than night and darkness
Blood capillaries will set fire to her moon
And night and darkness will run on all fours fearing her and her moon.

THE INCENSE

I again pray after silence and stay silent after prayer.
The lily of my dreams has long fled the white colour.
The white of snows, the white of petals… and even
the white of eggs.
The raven, blacker than death, haunts the lily,
fading away on the wings of storms.

BOTH POEMS TRANSLATED FROM ALBANIAN LANGUAGE INTO ENGLISH BY UKE ZENEL BUÇPAPAJ

Alisa Velaj was shortlisted for the annual international Erbacce-Press Poetry Award in the UK in June 2014. Her works have appeared in more than 100 print and online international magazines in Europe, the UK, the USA, Australia, etc. Velaj's poetry book Dreams is published by Cyberwit Press in India. Besides English, her poems have also been translated into Hebrew, Swedish, Romanian, French, and Portuguese. Her poetry collection With No Sweat At All is scheduled for publication by Cervena Barva Press in May 2020.