Dijaspora

iz knjige Stihom kroz život (2010.)

Protest and society

Diaspora

from the book Through Life in Verse (2010)

Oduvijek je kod nasbila glad i bijeda,u Ameriku je otišaomoj voljeni djeda.

Here hunger and povertyhave always held sway;and so my dear old grandad wentto America, far away.

Zatim je Europaotvorila vrata,tu je arbajtovomoj rođeni tata.

Then Europe in turnflung open its gate,and there my own fatherdid his arbeit, early and late.

I moja se ličnostza opstanak bori,zato vrijedno radimi ja u DIJASPORI.

And I, for my part,must fight to stay alive,so in the DIASPORAI too work hard and strive.

Valpovo, 17.12.1992.

Valpovo, December 17, 1992

Translator's note. Three generations of emigrant work: the grandfather's generation went to America, the father's to Western Europe as guest workers. "Arbeit" echoes his Slavonian word "arbajtovo", borrowed from the German for working abroad.