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Dear Penelope, DWill, and Giselle,
thank you for your comments. I'm happy that you liked the poem.
To be honest, I wasn't sure if people would find it interesting, because it has maybe unusual imagery and diction. So you can imagine my happiness and surprise when I saw your posts.
It seems that good literature and poetry can find its readers all around the world:)
And, yes, it's true, Charles Simic did an excellent translation.

All the best,
Milan

tomrose: Your name is Milan? Milan Kundera, is a great writer. I loved 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being', both the book and the film. Although. my husband was somewhat surprised when he watched the film on video with me!!!

Yes, Eastern European language and perception differs a little.....but that is what makes it interesting.

Penelope wrote:tomrose: Your name is Milan? Milan Kundera, is a great writer. I loved 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being', both the book and the film. Although. my husband was somewhat surprised when he watched the film on video with me!!!

Yes, Eastern European language and perception differs a little.....but that is what makes it interesting.

Yes, My name is Milan. And tomrosemasters is from Thomas Rose-Masters, my friend whose book will be published soon.
There is a topic in the Fiction Book Forum, in regards to his novel The Birdman Cycle. You can find the blurb and the cover there. Feel free to comment

Milan Kundera, a great writer. I especially liked his novel The Joke, but of course The Unbearable Lightness is the classic.
And, as we are mentioning Eastern European languages, I remembered Wisława Szymborska, Polish poet. She is really great.

Lot's Wife

They say I looked back out of curiosity.
But I could have had other reasons.
I looked back mourning my silver bowl.
Carelessly, while tying my sandal strap.
So I wouldn't have to keep staring at the righteous nape
of my husband Lot's neck.
From the sudden conviction that if I dropped dead
he wouldn't so much as hesitate.
From the disobedience of the meek.
Checking for pursuers.
Struck by the silence, hoping God had changed his mind.
Our two daughters were already vanishing over the hilltop.
I felt age within me. Distance.
The futility of wandering. Torpor.
I looked back setting my bundle down.
I looked back not knowing where to set my foot.
Serpents appeared on my path,
spiders, field mice, baby vultures.
They were neither good nor evil now--every living thing
was simply creeping or hopping along in the mass panic.
I looked back in desolation.
In shame because we had stolen away.
Wanting to cry out, to go home.
Or only when a sudden gust of wind
unbound my hair and lifted up my robe.
It seemed to me that they were watching from the walls of Sodom
and bursting into thunderous laughter again and again.
I looked back in anger.
To savor their terrible fate.
I looked back for all the reasons given above.
I looked back involuntarily.
It was only a rock that turned underfoot, growling at me.
It was a sudden crack that stopped me in my tracks.
A hamster on its hind paws tottered on the edge.
It was then we both glanced back.
No, no. I ran on,
I crept, I flew upward
until darkness fell from the heavens
and with it scorching gravel and dead birds.
I couldn't breathe and spun around and around.
Anyone who saw me must have thought I was dancing.
It's not inconceivable that my eyes were open.
It's possible I fell facing the city.

Wislawa Szymborska

P. S. This is the poem that I studied and analyzed with my students when we did the Bible. I wanted to show them how contemporary literature uses motifs and themes from the Bible, etc.

It is fascinating to speculate on these bizarre Bible stories. I always thought that Lot's wife had a raw deal. She would probably look back with longing rather than curiosity, I think, since it was her home.

This poem is more haunting than beautiful. Hard to speculate on a persons' motives for doing something so normal. After all, we don't always understand our own motives for doing some things.

Here is another on the same theme, which is also very haunting:-

Lot's Wife

by Anna Akhmatova
translated by Max Hayward and Stanley Kunitz

And the just man trailed God's shining agent,
over a black mountain, in his giant track,
while a restless voice kept harrying his woman:
"It's not too late, you can still look back

at the red towers of your native Sodom,
the square where once you sang, the spinning-shed,
at the empty windows set in the tall house
where sons and daughters blessed your marriage-bed."

A single glance: a sudden dart of pain
stitching her eyes before she made a sound . . .
Her body flaked into transparent salt,
and her swift legs rooted to the ground.

Who will grieve for this woman? Does she not seem
too insignificant for our concern?
Yet in my heart I never will deny her,
who suffered death because she chose to turn.

Penelope wrote:It is fascinating to speculate on these bizarre Bible stories. I always thought that Lot's wife had a raw deal. She would probably look back with longing rather than curiosity, I think, since it was her home.

And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said: 'Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the Plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be swept away.' Genesis 17

No kidding, Penny, I guess poor old Lot’s wife was being made into a rather unfortunate example of disobedience but this seems really unjust. Reading Genesis makes me wonder if she deserved her fate. The ‘he’ in Genesis 17 is an angel, not God, so it's not really orders from the very top, at least not directly. And the idea of ‘escape for your life’ easily flows to ‘look not behind thee’, perhaps because looking back will slow you down or because you might not like what you see, not necessarily because you miss your place. There are 4 ‘orders’ in Gen 17 of which ‘look not behind thee’ appears to be the least consequential. So I agree with the poem's logic, there are many reasons to look back. In any case, there is no mention in Genesis of any sanction for looking back that I can see, so I guess she was rather surprised when she started turning into a pillar of salt. Maybe he could have afflicted her with something nasty but not fatal, like a bad case of warts. Actually, I would have thought the Lord was too busy smoting and burning and destroying Sodom and Gomorrah to bother with a quick glance back by Lot’s wife, but I guess not.

I enjoy reading poetry and fiction from cultures and languages other than my own. It brings freshness, different perspective, values and thought patterns, so thanks Milan for posting these Serbian poems and please post more!

And I say bring on Milan Kundera in the Fiction thread. The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a great book IMO and I’d be interested in reading it on BT or another Kundera. I looked through the list of books that have been done on BT and I didn’t see Lightness of Being, although the list is long and the print tiny and in order that they were read not alphabetical, so I may have missed it.

So glad to see there is a very nice discussion of the two Lot's Wife poems. I am tired and spent from my word day, but promise to have a better look at both poems tomorrow.

And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said: 'Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the Plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be swept away.' Genesis 17

There are 4 ‘orders’ in Gen 17 of which ‘look not behind thee’ appears to be the least consequential.

I used to get so indignant with the 'God' of the OT. Like when they were carrying the Ark of the Covenant and God had told them they musn't touch it with their hands. This poor man just put his hand up to steady it over some rocky ground and he 'went up in a puff of blue smoke' or something. They claimed it was God's punishment for disobedience, but, if it was radio-active, as has been claimed, that would not be a punishment, just a result and a reason for the order. I do find the OT fascinating, and I have always wondered at 'The Lost Ark' and what it symbolises, also the Elohim, who seem to be a female group, and the Shekina Cloud? It is intriguing is it not?

Penny: I've only read bits and pieces of the Old Testament but I think it is an intriguing story. I wonder how much is the gospel truth (whatever that means!) and how much was added for dramatic effect? Maybe they figured, well, this is the basic story and its ok but we better throw in something to grab people's attention and make them remember ... or moreso .. teach them a LESSON that they will remember!!! ... so Lot's wife turns to a pillar of salt and the dude goes up in a puff of smoke ... slightly more dramatic than Lot's wife looks back and then carries on her merry way or the guy touches the Ark and nothing happens ... and all that smoting and punishment and burning, really not far off today's action films - drama, action, suspense, horror, violence, even sex (well, not sure about this last one in the OT but I've heard rumours) .. anyway, it has all the makings of a gripping read and I think it was meant to be that way.

And speaking of 'smote', I didn't realize that 'smote' is the past tense of 'smite' and 'smitten'. Funny how we might think that God 'smotes' the evil doers but not 'smites' them so much ... but it was 'smites' way back then, in the present tense. And odd as well that 'smitten' has multiple meanings and these days the most common use is that one might be 'smitten by another' but unlike smites and smotes, it doesn't involve a violent thumping ... although it might involve an emotional thumping! Guess that brings us back to smotes, when one was smitten in the past and now one is just, well, smoted? I think there is a poem in there somewhere.

Saffron wrote:So glad to see there is a very nice discussion of the two Lot's Wife poems. I am tired and spent from my word day, but promise to have a better look at both poems tomorrow.

Look forward to your comment Saffron