*Sep 27 2025 | A Kiss by Ana Horvat

A Kiss

first you have to traverse
with hands down and not looking
the fragmented space
of trembling starving birds
that you must not frighten
when that succeeds
you must
turn off the smile
overcome the sharp tension
between faces
swallow the cry
and light up a candle
then slightly tip your head
as if towards the sun
or facing the wind
then take a deep breath and dive
with infinitely delicate strokes
to touch and taste
those lips
that justify
glorify and cherish
a previously promised
senseless death

From Kutija za Suncokrete (A Sunflower Box) collection by Ana Horvat

Original:

Poljubac

najprije treba prijeći
spuštenih ruku i ne gledajući
jedan razmrvljen prostor
gdje drhture gladne ptice
koje se ne smije prestrašiti
kada to uspije
mora se
utrnuti osmijeh
svladati oštra napetost
između lica
progutati plač
i upaliti svijeća
zatim malo zabaciti glavu
kao prema suncu
ili ususret vjetru
pa udahnuti i zaroniti
beskrajno laganim zamasima
do dodira i okusa
tih usana
kojima se opravdava
slavi i ljubi
jedna obećana
besmislena smrt

>1 SandraArdnas: GASP!

Give me some minutes. I need and want to think about what even to say. It's a poem that I want to just say, "Oh" and "Oh"...but that is not much of a discussion is it? ;)

For some context, I just skimmed through excerpts of literary critics' main observations about her poetry in general. It boils down to that she speaks directly, rather than in some formalized, hermetic poetics. Usually she speaks of common everyday issues, which are easily relatable, but in such a personal way that they become distinctive and special.

As far as bio goes, she's a lawyer and worked as one until retirement. Aside from writing poetry in her spare time, she established and has been running an animal shelter. Also, works at promoting poetry online on her website and social media. They published dozens of free downloadable poetry collections of Croatian poetry, alas only available in Croatian. (Perhaps this is a project for me since this was my translation :D)

As for the poem, that image of fragmented space of trembling starving birds one must not frighten is forever seared in my brain as illustrating the struggle and precariousness of genuine intimacy

What a fresh approach! A poem not only about a kiss but about a kiss--all the steps, the risks, the awkwardness of that one little (first) kiss. And all the world's activities that go on around the would be kissers, things oblivious to the kiss--birds, sun, wind--yet are unaware helpers for the kiss, guideposts. That was really splendid, I thought. Not over-sentimentalizing which romantic poems can so often do.

And then the last lines, expressing how the kiss, the particulars of a kiss, the kiss that for eons suddenly transforms lives as having extra meaning, to someone else, to someone new, to someone unobliged to love us, to someone we want to be special to.

I love that this is well-trodden poetic ground and yet Horvat captures it in such a vital new way. By focusing so intently on the actual excruciatingly physicality of kissing (much as we do when we first kiss) she makes us remember what we probably have long forgotten. And yet Horvat doesn't at all miss the pure wonderment of it.

I'm smitten!

You said Horvat is a favorite poet of yours? I can see why. Is this poem a good example overall of her work, her style? Because I definitely want to read more. Someone who can enchant the romantically jaded and faded (me) is a remarkable thing.

>4 SandraArdnas: Absolutely. And right there in the beginning too, which when reading for the first time I wondered, what will this be, how will it fit? And then, oh, yes, yes, that is so perfectly right.

>3 SandraArdnas: Thank you so much for the bio background. It answered a question I had before I saw you had answered it. (I was in a fever to respond to it so shut out everything else.)

A lawyer, well, well. Does it make sense to you that she would be a lawyer? I don't know what kind of a lawyer, but lawyers spend their careers being exact, precise, so that made sense to me. And in spite of old jokes, many are very human, too. ha

I love that sort of thing--knowing more about the poet--how it illuminates many things, and in this case, reiterates not all poets are full time poets (Philip Larkin, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, to name a few--even Stevie Smith worked in a publishing office, I think, for years and years) and their livelihoods must have informed their poetry (definitely Larkin), or in some cases, must have given them some available time to write (Smith).

I find that when I like a poem, I want to know more about the poet. I don't think that I am as that reliably interested in other writers' backgrounds.

I just re-read once again. I'm now chuckling at her astute observation that you turn off the smile (turn off--assumes you are smiling, how true.)

Teeth crashing is not pleasant.

>5 DebiCates: She's probably my favorite Croatian poet in that there are so many I absolutely cherish. Even after not really reading it in decades, I know dozens of them partially or entirely by heart. Now that I delved back into it, there's several new collections published meanwhile, some of which where available for free download in PDF from her site, so I've been reacquainting myself with her body of work so to speak.

Is this poem a good example overall of her work, her style?
Yes and no. This one is far more poetic then some that are very lighthearted. There's a whole collection Small Poems, many of which are of more similar to this one

Summer Radioprogram

The Firefighters have announced
that fire is a good servant
but a poor master

Taking note of it
from the ashes

>9 SandraArdnas: LOL, nice. And isn't interesting (maybe it was your intention, now that I think of it) how she dovetails with Stevie Smith, our "larking" poet before?

I'm with a group that is reading a short story anthology where the editor gives us much delight of discovery because the stories always have a relationship to the one before, and the one after it, although he never overtly states that. Black Water 2

I sometimes find that true in my own random reads. How surprisingly often (though not always) one work interacts with another, different genre, different era, different audience, etc. It's got to say something about the human mind, about the way the universe works even! I suspect that could happen here, too.

>5 DebiCates: That was a splendid commentary if I may say so. Mine are usually short poetic takes of the kind 'this is what it did to me' :D

The first poem by a Croatian poet that I have ever read. The one that you posted for the weekly entry is moving and gives me pause.

Summer Radioprogram is a poetic wake-up-slap-in-the-face. It stopped me in my tracks. And i usually struggle with translated poems.

Bravo!

And, Thank you.

>12 hamlet61: Thankfully, she's not particularly untranslatable. There's a long list of issues in translating poetry from one language to another, and the more different the languages the longer it gets, from multiple meanings and/or symbolism in original language, rhythm, rhyme if any to specific cultural things conjured up by some words. It's one of the many reasons I picked her for my first contribution.

>11 SandraArdnas: You be you. And I'm always going to be the one that says too much. ha

>12 hamlet61: Matt, my first Croatian poet, too. It would be fun if we had a map for The Poetry Collective, where we could put pins for the countries of poets we post here.

>13 SandraArdnas: Sandra, do you speak Croatian? I'm monolingual so that infrequently occurs to me, the difficulties, in poetry especially, that a translator must face. Indeed, are you the translator here?

I like the idea of the uncertainty of the kiss which is conjured by the dive and its possibility of rejection (the oblivion of senseless death).

>1 SandraArdnas:

Thank you for the introduction to this poet, I had not heard of her previously.

(Btw, typo alert--"then slightly tip your head" is currently missing the "r")

>5 DebiCates:

I'll just piggyback on Debi's comment as more or less exhausting what occurs to me as well. Except (maybe?) that I took "the starving birds" to be a metaphor for emotions, the easily-startled reticence and insecurity, before taking the plunge.

>16 DebiCates: It's my native tongue, haha. Though I'm pretty much bilingual since most of my writing and reading for the majority of my life now has been in English. I actually write poetry in English and I'm not very adept at translating it to Croatian, though it's mine so I bloody know what I'm saying, lol. English is far more malleable, partly due to simpler grammar, but also it's easier to play with language in all sort of ways because of it.

Also, I'm professionally a translator. This is my first stab at poetry, at least a successful one. I tried translating poetry of a friend of mine to English but that did not go well as it's riddled with regional dialect words for which I never found a happy solution.

Wonderful! A first kiss even :)

I am so impressed with the translators among us, (Thomas has shared two of his Greek translations) and was thinking about how translation affects the structure, rhyme, cadence etc.. it would be great to hear a little about the process if you are so inclined?

Thank you for sharing.

>18 LolaWalser: Thanks for the typo, I caught 2 after I posted, bug not that one.

In case you'd read more of her and language is not a barrier, there's a selection of poems from each collection at https://ana-horvat-poetry.net/zbirke-poezije/.

>21 SandraArdnas:

Thanks for the link.

language is not a barrier

Valid concern after all these years... Before I check the link, here's an attempt at back-translation. Mind you, I am terribly literal. "Isprekidan" is a bad choice, but I decided to do it without consulting dictionaries.

Poljubac

prvo moraš preći
spuštenih ruku i ne gledajući
isprekidan prostor
gdje drhte gladne ptice
koje ne smiješ prepasti

ETA: the original

najprije treba prijeći
spuštenih ruku i negledajući
jedan razmrvljen prostor
gdje drhture gladne ptice
koje se ne smije prestrašiti

>22 LolaWalser: Going over this made me realize I missed an entire line. Gasp

There's something interesting to note about the difference between the English second person singular and the Croatian undefined, subject-less original, but right now I'm not coming up with anything.

>24 LolaWalser: Yeah, I decided the 'you' better conveys the personal tone. The English 'one does this or that' is far too formal and out of place.

Added the missing line: with infinitely delicate strokes. Also added the original the OP. Not sure why I didn't originally since if I ever have a publishing house, poetry will always be in bilingual editions. Even a rudimentary knowledge of original language benefits from original side by side.

>18 LolaWalser: I took "the starving birds" to be a metaphor for emotions, the easily-startled reticence and insecurity, before taking the plunge.

Yes, to me, though directly it references the emotional landscape prior to the kiss taking place, it really conjures up more general feelings of insecurity, reticence, precariousness and at the same time insatiable hunger before any plunge into genuine emotional intimacy, physical or otherwise.

>20 TonjaE: This one was pretty straightforward to translate. There's some beautiful imagery, which take some playing around with words to find what I'd consider the best fit in English to conjure up the same emotions, but it's free verse and not much in way of ambiguity, or poetic devices that require specific sounds or rhythms

I like the added line, scooches right in there perfectly. And good on you putting the original language there too for readers in Croatian.

Sandra, consider adding your name on the credits for translation above as well. It's an creative art in itself, a valuable one, is it not?

That's it for me today. It's been a very happy poetic Saturday.

>27 SandraArdnas: Thank you Sandra, this helps make sense of why people read different translations of the same work... I always wondered what the point was. :)

A nice one, and thank you for doing the translation! Gets at things we've all felt, making us see them better. Or anyway things I've felt. I can't help but suspecting that, if a poet feels all this, the person they're kissing is often following a less sensitive guidebook.

I confess I quizzed ChatGPT about the Croatian.

1. It says what's been mentioned about the personal and impersonal. The original is "stark, stripped-down, and imperative." How "you have to" and "you must" sound like a rule book in English, but more like a ritual in Croatian. So too it emphasizes that phrases like upaliti svijeća, "to light a candle" sound like ritual in Croatian. My feeling is that the genre nodded toward is more ritual than advice or instruction manual, right?

2. ChatGPT says that, despite Croatian having three grammatical genders, nothing in the poem gives away the gender of the kissers. I gather there are a lot of impersonal forms and infinitives. Is this just how it would be done in Croatian, or is the poet purposefully avoiding gendered constructions? That said, while nothing is more like early love than looking into the sun, women are more likely to be looking "up" on a first kiss than men. I've given women neck pain, and never had it myself ;)

3. ChatGPT focused on besmislena smrt, "senseless death," saying it "resonates with existential weight." The line is unexpected and as the last line is surely supposed to carry weight or tip the whole thing on its side.

So I ask: How is a kiss like death? What's dying exactly? Is it positive idea, like a petite mort, or a depressing one—that every first kiss looks forward to the end of the affair? Are these questions knowing Croatian can answer, or is this just the question of the poem and we can all take our guesses?

>30 timspalding:

My two cents...

1. You hit onto something with mentioning "ritual", there is, to my ears, a touch of solemnity about the poem. As perhaps there is around the "first kiss" whenever we're really in love? It's a kind of ceremony, an introduction to the Other unlike any other... stop me, I'm babbling.

2. This tone is achieved mainly (I think) through the neutral voice adopted and yes the whole poem is genderless (as is Sandra's translation), which is interesting given that Croatian is highly gendered. The imagery of lighting a candle certainly supports the feeling of something sacred going on.

3. I suppose this (existential weight) would come up with any mention of death, death is heavy, man. But on the guesses, I'd guess you take away what you (one) is inclined to take away. I like the erotic connotation. Beyond that I'm not sure I understand it.

So I ask: How is a kiss like death?

Maybe because it marks a transition from one state to a new one? Your old being "dies" as the relationship changes? There is a "before" and "after"(-life)?

>30 timspalding: I'll respond in more detail a bit later, but just wanted to say right now that the last lines I personally interpret as being in stark opposition to the rest of the poem and that it basically says 'it is senseless without these moments of intimacy'. It isn't that the kiss is death, the kiss transforms the death (and life) to something more. That's why we glorify and cherish it. It makes the weight of death bearable as long as we get to experience sublime moments of life

I'm afraid I don't have much to offer beyond what's already been said — I agree that there's a vulnerability present in not looking so as not to frighten the starving birds (starving perhaps for affection?) and in the dive. I also interpreted the last few lines as saying that a life is now justifiably lived having experienced these moments of love.

The bit I don't think I get is "swallow the cry/and light up a candle". Perhaps swallowing a cry is a moment of overcoming fear of vulnerability? I'm afraid I'm not grasping the candle, however — maybe it's more obvious to someone else?

Translating a poem is very difficult work — I appreciate what you've done to bring us our poem this week. Thank you so much & well done!!

Yes, me too, @GraceCollection, that candle was an interesting stand out item for me as well. What's your impression of it and how it fits in, @SandraArdnas?

>33 GraceCollection: "swallow the cry / and light up a candle", in sequence these two lines make me think of expressing oneself without sound / and starting a slow burn.

>35 TonjaE: ooooh, a "slow burn"....very apt, Tonja!

I'm not satisfied I get the last part. I think it has to be negative, but that's as far as I've gotten.

"to touch and taste
those lips
that justify
glorify and cherish
a previously promised
senseless death"

Could the ending possibly mean something along the lines of dying happy?
The only thing in life that is promised is death.... someone said that, and most seem to believe it.
So if you were to glorify and cherish the promised death, you'd be happy about it.

Would have to be a f@*^ig amazing kiss to die happy about, but possible. :)

>37 timspalding: What about this explanation, does it help?

Death is promised to us all, but if in life one touches and tastes another's lips, and if there is in that kiss such love and tenderness it transforms the life of the kisser, now the kisser's death won't be otherwise senseless. The kiss transforms that life into something that is glorified and cherished.

Of course the poet says it such an extremely economical way that isn't sappy like I've written above. The word death startles, then the meaning hits, and makes a wonderous meaning, or at least possibility of love and happiness and all that jazz, in that kiss.

At least I think that is how some of us are taking it to mean.

ETA: yeah, like Tonja said.

>30 timspalding: 1) while it is grammatically imperative, which you can't avoid since you're basically saying which are the steps to take, it has a very personal tone, advice, more than imperious instruction if you will. I'm not sure about the ritual interpretation, sure there are some connotations, especially with the candle lightning, but they are just connotations. I perceive it more as a kind of guidebook of all the things that could go wrong and ruin the moment, so the poet comes across as someone who has experienced it, either as causing the moment of intimacy to go awry or being on the receiving end of it, or both, but she's telling us her very personal 'guide' for a successful, sublime kiss :D

2) it is how it is normally done in Croatian, but I'd note that impersonal form (which corresponds to English using 'one' as subject, so literally the first line would be 'one has to traverse'), is used in addressing us the readers, not the kissers. Aside from having 3 grammatical genders, meaning every noun has a gender, not just living things, that gender is reflected in verb conjugations, adjectives and more, so impersonal form is basically the norm when you're addressing everyone. The kissers' gender is never identified either, grammatically or otherwise.

3) Death is a given and it seems just senseless and cruel, but there are experiences that transcend it and shift the focus to the preciousness of life while you're living it instead. This particular kiss was one such experience. Does that make sense? It is certainly my reading of it.

>33 GraceCollection: The bit I don't think I get is "swallow the cry/and light up a candle". Perhaps swallowing a cry is a moment of overcoming fear of vulnerability? I'm afraid I'm not grasping the candle, however — maybe it's more obvious to someone else?

That is my reading of swallow the cry. Whatever emotions threaten to overwhelm you and not let you be open and vulnerable. The candle plays right into it. Instead of succumbing to some fear or inhibition, you shine a light instead. Candles also basically a romantic trope, but here they play a role much deeper than just setting the mood. (Caveat, I don't really read (or write) poetry analyzing these things, I just let the imagery run through me and take me to places. It is only afterwards that I might analyze and put into words what that was, sometimes not even afterwards, lol).

>7 DebiCates: I meant to comment on this, but now see I somehow haven't. Ana Horvat is actually a pseudonym. I'm not exactly sure when her actual identity became public knowledge, but for at least a few first collections, it wasn't. I suspect it has something to do with keeping these two worlds as lawyer and poet separate.

>42 SandraArdnas: That has me pondering which world she was protecting, or perhaps it was both. I wonder if any other poets have had to do the same.

@SandraArdnas I want to say that your sharing the background process of translating poetry has been an eye-opener for me, and others here. I loved the poem. I loved that you translated it. I love that you discussed translation. All around a splendid experience. Thank you. ❤️

>35 TonjaE: starting a slow burn.
>41 SandraArdnas: Instead of succumbing to some fear or inhibition, you shine a light instead.

Very interesting!

>43 DebiCates: I'm speculating, but I'd first suspect not wanting to discuss it with people who are not really interested in poetry, but would still open the topic just pro forma, you know they learn you have a collection published and feel obliged to comment. And she worked as a lawyer in the national oil company, so huge firm, not some small lawyer officer. There would be hundreds of such conversations :)

>44 DebiCates: Oh, thank you so much. It was a pleasure to translate it and I'm glad the poem has new fans. I absolutely love it, though she has one that I cherish above all others. I'll eventually track it down in a physical copy and post it. I managed to remember the beginning and the end, but miss some middle parts from memory. As a teaser it begins with Finally, something pure and absolutely close :D

>32 SandraArdnas: interesting what you say, I like how the poem captures the nervous energy of a kiss but the last line of 'meaningless death' was unexpected, and I read the poem several more times. I did wonder if the poem was originally inspired by a Coatian folk tale, the last lines made me think of a Romeo and Juliet type story.

@SandraArdnas, reading your explanation in message 32 is interesting.

>37 timspalding: I think it's about looking at things in a different way, where life and death co-exist, so maybe, I think it's not meaningless death but meaningful life.

@SandraArdnas, in your message 40, point 3, does that mean that a death would be more painful if there were no moments like this kiss in life?

>1 SandraArdnas:

I really like how you translated using the frequency of the 'ly' and 'fy' sound

with infinitely delicate strokes ----------- infinitely
to touch and taste
those lips
that justify ----------- justify
glorify and cherish ----------- glorify
a previously promised ----------- previously

>48 AnishaInkspill: Not by any folk tales that I know of, but that isn't saying much, I'm not really acquainted with those, haha. I'm a huge fan of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić whose Priče iz davnine partly took inspiration from some, but that's the extent of my knowledge.

To expound further on why death has become less senseless, I think the poet emphasizes that some moments shift our focus from death to life and that ultimately what we do with the life given to us is what matters. Ultimately, the more you truly live, the less the eventual death looms large and senseless throughout life. Or to put it differently, immortality is not an option, so being alive and experiencing at least some of the highs it has to offer makes death pale in significance and makes us cherish the life and those moments all the more.

>52 SandraArdnas: I understand now, and a wonderful way to be.