A short poem by Milos Crnjanski

(Hungary, October 1893 - November 1977)

Milos Crnjanski was a Serbian writer and poet of the expressionist wing of Serbian modernism, author, and diplomat.

Say, if my smile would fade,

If it melted like a flower

half dream and half ice,

Once more if

I could love …

Would it feel good wherever,

and life, would it be less mad?

Or would I then as much as now

have to smile and fall sick,

and die?

Translated by Milos Crnjanski

(born in Valjevo, Serbia, December 1981, living in Vienna)