Poet, essayist, translator, was born in 1973 in Strumica, North Macedonia, in the family of war refugees from the Balkan Wars. His poems are translated into more than forty languages. For the book Relocated Stone (2007) was given the East European Hubert Burda poetry award and the most prestigious Macedonian poetry prize Miladinov Brothers at Struga Poetry Evenings. Other awards include Studentski Zbor award for best debut in Macedonia and Xu Zhimo Silver Leaf award for European poetry at King’s College, Cambridge. American jazz composer and collaborator of Björk and Lou Reed — Oliver Lake, has composed music based on Madzirov’s poems. Reviews about his poetry books appeared in “Der Spiegel”, “World Literature Today”, “El Pais”... His book in English “Remnants of Another Age”, with foreword by Carolyn Forché was published in US by BOA Editions and in UK by Bloodaxe Books.

I lived at the edge of the town
like a streetlamp whose light bulb no one ever replaces.
Cobwebs held the walls together, and sweat our clasped hands.
I hid my teddy bear
in holes in crudely built stone walls saving him from dreams.

Day and night I made the threshold come alive returning like a bee that
always returns to the previous flower.

It was a time of peace when I left home:

the bitten apple was not bruised,
on the letter a stamp with an old abandoned house.

From birth I’ve migrated to quiet places and voids have clung beneath me
like snow that doesn’t know if it belongs to the earth or to the air.