Ivan Benak

pučki pjesnik · folk poet  ·  Sopje 1933. – Valpovo 2015.Sopje 1933 – Valpovo 2015

Protest and society

The Invalid

from the book Through Life in Verse (2010)

Prođe neka žena,bolno se oslanja o štaku.Kao da meso para,štaka zacvili.Kroz kičmuprođu mi srsi.Ostaje u sjećanjutaj susret nemili.Netko nešto promrsi,da l' molbuili kletvu?Tko zna!Tek vidim,neke granate,krvavu žetvu.I vidim,tužnu prazninu,što mjesto noge zja.Osjetih,bolnu morunjenog sna.Oh, Bože!Uzdah se ote,nehotice.A suza mi klizneniz lice.

A woman passes by,leaning in pain upon a crutch.As if it tore at flesh,the crutch lets out a squeal.Down my spinethe shivers creep.There stays in my memorythat meeting I still feel.Someone mutters, low and deep,is it pleadingor a curse?Who's to know!I only seethe bloody harvestof some shell's burst.And I seethe sad emptinessgaping where a leg should go.I feltthe aching nightmareher sleep must undergo.Oh, God!A sigh breaks out,unbidden, weak.And a tear slidesdown my cheek.

Valpovo, 1997.

Valpovo, 1997

Translator's note. The woman lost her leg to shelling in the Homeland War of 1991–95.