ABOUT THE POEMS Reading the work of Nikola Madzirov is like having someone cut cleanly with a ruler through many pages of one’s memories congealed by time. The fine metaphors (“One day someone will rearrange the room’s furniture/ like chessmen at the start of a new game”), the vividly worked images, and the strikingly individual view of transience and permanence in human affairs make this Macedonian poet, whose work has been translated into more than thirty languages, an indispensable voice of our literary age.

After Us

One day someone will fold our blankets