Ana Radović Firat (Serbia)

Reflections on Richard Berengarten: Thoughts, Memories, Echoes

Richard Berengarten and I started corresponding in December 2017 thanks to an introduction from my dear and honoured professor, Aleksandar Saša Petrov. A few months later, at the very beginning of July 2018, we had our first phone conversation. Surprisingly, Richard addressed me with a usual Serbian greeting: ‘Dobar dan Ana. Kako si?’ His words were instantly followed by a thought in my mind: ‘So this is how that voice reverberates. The voice chosen by the butterfly’. At that time, I knew Berengarten’s poems had been translated into many languages. I was also aware of the fact that his voice was very much capable of being given to others. His Balkan Trilogy had been holding my rapt attention for quite a while.

As my anxiety scattered due to this warm, welcoming gesture, I greeted Richard respectfully in Serbian and the communication continued in English. Besides feeling very much honoured for having the chance to talk to an internationally acknowledged author whose work I greatly admire, at the subliminal level I felt accepted and encouraged. Full, yet seemingly light, Richard’s words were undergirded by the underlying depth. As the dialogue steadily shifted to the subject of Serbian, Yugoslav and Balkan tradition(s), his distinctive view on the Balkans genuinely affected my perception of the spaces I live in. Moreover, steeped in a unique face-to-face communication, I realised soon after that it was not only a talk with a poet, but an exchange of ideas with a polyhistor, one with delicate demeanour and modest conduct. At a deeper level, as my attention became gradually more acute in the conversation, I noticed the light was brighter and the space started unfurling. This phenomenon which, noticed intuitively, always occurs at first encounter with rare and uncommon people, I have only become aware of later, retrospectively in the recall of the past moment.

The acquaintance with Richard Berengarten has evolved parallel with my cognizance of the hidden layers of meaning in his poetic discourse. The beginning implied both the horizontal and the vertical path, owing to the fact that his poems not only surpass the inspirational moment, but also possess the power to make readers start examining their inner selves. I was, by all means, no exception. They affected me profoundly, so I consequently started palpating my inner face, eavesdropping the darkness of the night, and keeping a vigil over the breath of time. Perhaps the most striking of Berengarten’s gifts is the ability to craft poems as both the nuclei of poetic strength and creativity, and as the intersection points of sensual, historical and philosophical axes. His poems are vigorous to the extent that they open horizons readers have not previously been aware of, and bring other poets into the light of the present moment.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, some golden or blessed coincidence led me to meet Richard Berengarten, an exceptional person and a poet whose work transcends cultures and borders, amalgamates past with present and illuminates the future. Even though I cannot help but ponder about the price he paid for these poetic tokens, it is indisputable that they have positioned him among the few great poets capable of brightening and igniting our bleak reality.

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