Što si skrivila generacijo?

iz knjige Stihom kroz život (2010.)

Generation, What Was Your Crime?

from the book Through Life in Verse (2010)

Recite mi što da sada radim?Kome da se za pravdu obratim?Sve ja shvaćam, bilo ratno stanje,propala mi kuća i imanje.Taj prokleti rat je potrajao,za oružje penziju sam dao.Jasno mi je, znam da trebalo je,sad vratite ono što je moje.Za sve ovo nikoga ne krivim,sada dajte da normalno živim.Konačno je došlo mirno stanje,ja ne tražim mladost ni imanje.Već ja tražim mirovinu svoju,mukotrpno stečenu u znoju.Sada molim Državu i Vladuda mi moju mirovinu dadu.Jer životna zadnja mi je rata,svetom Petru već kucam na vrata.Pustite me da još malo živim,pokoljenju svome da se divim.

Now tell me, what am I supposed to do?For justice, who is there to turn to? Who?I understand it all: the war was on,my house and all my property were gone.That cursed war dragged on the long years through;I gave my pension for the weapons, too.It's clear to me, I know it had to be;now give back what belongs by right to me.For all of this I blame no one today;now let me live a normal life, I pray.At last the peace has come, the war is through;I do not ask for youth, nor land, from you,I only ask to have my pension paid,the one that sweat and weary toil have made.Now I implore the Government and Stateto give my pension, while it's not too late.My last instalment in this life I pay;I'm knocking at Saint Peter's door today.Just let me live a little longer, soI may admire my offspring as they grow.

Kad se sjetim što sam sve radioi u kakvoj opasnosti bio.Ne žaleći ni truda ni mladost,da priskrbim za duboku starost.

When I recall how hard I had to strive,the dangers that I faced to stay alive,not sparing toil nor youth, all so I'd holdenough to see me through when I am old.

Listonoša danas mi je bio,mirovinu moju je donio.Kad izbrojih što mi poštar dao,od tuge sam skoro zaplakao,a od bola postala mi mukai staračka zadrhtala ruka.

The postman came to see me here today,and brought my pension to me on his way.When I had counted what the postman brought,I nearly wept for sorrow at the thought,and from the pain I felt sick through and through,and my old hand began to tremble too.

Radio sam četrdeset ljeta,da postanem socijalna bijeda.

I've worked for forty summers, just to bea welfare case, reduced to misery.

Valpovo, 14. 04. 1998.

Valpovo, April 14, 1998

Translator's note. Written when the Constitutional Court ordered the state to repay pensioners the money withheld from their pensions during the 1991–95 war, and the government ignored the ruling.