POETRY
Serbian Literature / Serbian Poetry
Tesla and I
— POEM by
Maja Herman Sekulić
(Translated from Serbian)
(Nominee for Nobel Prize in Literature, 2025 from Serbia)
On top of the world I
in the poet’s tower up there
in the gray sky,
Letting my thought out,
Singing in full voice,
It is all rock and roll,
It is all in those blades of grass,
On the Bryant Park lawn,
Where Nikola Tesla fed his beloved white dove.
She then flew to him,
To the stone tower,
Landed on the edge
of the New Yorker Hotel window sill,
Up there in the clouds,
On the 33rd floor,
In the garret where they wed
among the stone faced griffons
as witnesses,
Where I dwell now,
Among narrow gothic walls,
Encircling his ascetic bed,
Trying to get into his head
to write a sonnet
about how he tamed Niagara falls,
How he lit the first electric city,
How he discovered magnetic waves,
And about the earth energy,
And the eternity.
He knew writing the great American ode,
Reciting it with gusle,
As if it were a Serbian epic poem
about how he ended up here,
The wizard isolated and forgotten
although he changed the world
we live in.
His world lives
In my poem.
….
(Self-translation from SERBIAN)
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Maja Herman Sekulić
Maja Herman-Sekulić (Serbia/USA) is an internationally published Serbian-American author of 23 books in Serbian, English German and French; her poems were translated in 25 languages. Maja is an acclaimed and award nominated poet, novelist, essayist, bilingual scholar, and a major translator. Her last book is a novel “NINE LIVES OF MILENA Pavlovic Barillli” published first in Serbia by Barilli Foundation in June 2021.
Maja Herman-Sekulić is also a world traveller and a Princeton Ph.D. in Comparative Literature. She is a member of the American and Serbian PEN, American Academy of Poets, Association of writers of Serbia and Serbian Literary Society. She was schooled and lived all over the world from Europe and USA to the Far East, and now shares her time between New York and Belgrade.
Accolade and Awards:
Of her poetry, Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky said: “her poetry is of the rarest talent and beauty as she is herself”. Most recently she was anointed by the UN World Literary Forum their ”International Ambassador of Peace”, by the Galaxy International Foundation and Academy and the World Literature, India, their “Ambassador of Culture and Good Will”, by Global Literary Society their Administrator and unique “Global Poetry Icon” and the “Icon of Style of Serbia in last 2 centuries”. In last 3 years she was awarded 13 international literary awards in India, Italy, Turkey, US, Russia and Romania, and First Serbian Oscar for popularity. She won Citta di Galatta – Antioni de Ferraris award for the best poetry book in foreign language in 2021. Maja Herman-Sekulić has been nominated for Nobel Prize in Literature, 2025 from Serbia.
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