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Mladen Blažević

Mladen Blažević was born in Rijeka, Croatia, in 1969. In the past he has worked on archaeological field projects and for daily and weekly newspapers as a journalist. At the beginning of 2000, he moved to the countryside to start a small organic farm, and he founded and edited several newspapers. In 2008 Blažević published his first novel, Tragovi goveda ("Cattle tracks"), and in 2013 he co-authored a collection of dystopian stories, NDH 2033 ("The Independent State of Croatia 2033"). In 2015 he published his second novel, Ilirik ("Iliric"). He also wrote the screenplay for the live-action sequence of the live-action animated feature film Je letrika ubila štrige ("Did the electrics kill off the earwigs?"). Currently, he is writing his third novel and the script for a drama series, and is preparing to publish a collection of poems, Posljednji tasmanijski tigar ("The last Tasmanian tiger"). A large number of his short stories and poems have been published in various literary journals and websites. Mladen Blažević's stories and poems have also been translated into Slovenian, English and Ukrainian.

migrants

butterflies from North Africa
will return again this spring
for the leftovers from uncleared tables
swans will migrate to Scandinavia
to clean lakes and ponds
overgrown with algae
　
our paths will retain the direction of
the Alpine parabola
of extrusions through tunnels
guided by the law of connected vessels
　
we will justify them by natural injustices
by clouds of locusts
by unfortunate movements of underground rocks
　
although the world is intertwined with pipes
which easily give way in shafts
like valves for draining blood

NOTE: The English translation of the poem "migrants" above is by Mladen Blažević, with translation assistance by Tea Pecarina.

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