Smrt starog hrasta
Death of the Old Oak
Bio jednom stari hrast,u Valpovu pokraj pruge,godine je tu brojio,mnoge zime hladne, duge.
Once there stood an old oak treein Valpovo by the rails;there he counted up his years,many winters' icy gales.
Dva stoljeća preživio,mnoge vlade promijenio,tri je rata pretrpio,nevremenu prkosio.
Through two centuries he'd grown,saw regimes be overthrown,three wars' hardship he had known,and through storms he held his own.
Tisuću devetstodevedeset druge,pluća su mu oboljela.Nekoliko grana hrasta,tužno su se osušila.
Then in nineteen hundredand ninety-two, that year,his poor lungs were stricken ill.Several branches of the oaksadly withered and went dry.
Ali nitko da se nađe,tom kolosu da pomogne,da mu nekog lijeka nađe,bolje zdravlje da mu smogne.
But no soul was to be foundwho would help the giant through,seek some cure that might be found,win him back his health anew.
Tek nagore što je moglo,osudu su dali krivu.Porota je odlučilasmrtnu kaznu tome divu.
Just the worst that could be done:they pronounced a false decree,and the jury handed downdeath as sentence for the tree.
Gledali ga sa svih strana,razni ljudi i dželati,mjerkali ga kako će musmrtonosni ubod dati.
From all sides they looked him over,various folk and headsmen came,sizing him up, working outwhere the deadly blow to aim.
Sjeckali ga i rezali,al' se kolos nije dao.Traktorom ga natezali,sve dok jadnik nije pao.
They kept chopping, they kept sawing,but the colossus would not go;with a tractor they kept drawing,till the poor old thing lay low.
Tad iz panja voda šikne,kao gejzir u vis skače.Bol se poljem prolomila,a iz trave žir zaplače.
From the stump then water gushes,like a geyser, high it leaps;pain broke out across the meadow,in the grass an acorn weeps.
Nema više starog hrasta,u Valpovu pokraj pruge.Još jedino čujem vjetar,kako cvili prepun tuge.
Now the old oak is no morein Valpovo by the rails.All I hear now is the wind:full of sorrow, how it wails.
Valpovo, 12.04.1993.
Valpovo, April 12, 1993