Sara Nović studied in the MFA at Columbia University in New York City, with dual concentrations in fiction and literary translation. She is currently a teaching fellow and instructor of undergraduate writing. Her fiction is forthcoming in the 2013 Minnesota Review.
Ratovi U Našim Životima
Marko Bašić je preturio preko glave
dva balkanska i dva svjetska rata.
Ovo mu je peti.
Meni i mom pokoljenju—drugi.
A za Vladimira
s njegovih osamnaest mjeseci
u ovom trenutku mogli bi se reći
da je čak polovicu svog života
proveo u ratu.
Wars In Our Lives
Marko Bašić is in over his head
with two Balkan and two World wars.
This is his fifth.
Me and my generation—the second.
Even for Vladimir,
at eighteen months old,
in this moment one can say
half his life
has been carried out in war.
Uz (Ako Je Izašla) Moju Čileansku Knjigu
Početkom proljeća,
kako su me,
dok je Sarajevo još preko pošte
komuniciralo sa svijetom,
obavijestili njen prevodilac pjesnik Huan Oktavio Prenz
i njen izdavač, također pjesnik, Omar Lara
u čileu je trebalo da izađe
moja knjiga na španskom jeziku.
Ako je izašla
sada se možda neki čileanski čitalac pita:
Šta je s njenim autorom?
Šta je?
Sjedi u podrumu,
skuplja drva,
loži na balkonu vratu,
vodi ratni dnevnik
i sanja o kajgani s tri jaja.
An Addition (If It's Been Released) To My Chilean Book
In early spring
I was—
when Sarajevo was still communicating via mail
with the rest of the world—
informed by the translator poet Juan Octavia Prenz,
and his publisher Omar Lara, also a poet,
that the Spanish edition of my book
was going to be released in Chile.
If it was
some Chilean reader might now be asking:
What about the author?
What’s become of him?
He’s sitting in a cellar,
gathering wood,
setting fire to the balcony,
starting a war journal
and dreaming of three scrambled eggs.
U Predvečerje
Na igralištu
jedan mladić
svira na gitari
a iznad njega
prolijeće granata s Poljina.
Budući sarajevski Bulat Okudžava?
Mladiću,
samo mi ostaj živ,
a umjetnost,
koja je meni bila sve,
umjetnost je,
vjeruj mi,
sasvim nevažna!
At Dusk
On the soccer pitch
a boy
strums his guitar;
overhead
a grenade flies in from Poljina.
Could he become Sarajevo’s own Bulat Okudžava?
Young man,
just focus on staying alive.
Art,
which for me was everything once,
art is,
trust me,
totally unimportant.
Da Sve Ovo Preživim
Ziji Kafedžiću
Da sve ovo preživim
osim stihova
pomoglo mi je desetak-petnaest ljudi,
običnih,
svetih ljudi srajeva,
koje do rata jedva da sam i poznavao.
Država je također pokazala izvjesno razumijevanje
za moju nevolju,
ali kad god bih pokucao na njena vrata,
ona je bila odsutna—
ili u Ženevi
ili u Njujorku.
To Survive All This
For Zija Kafedžić
To survive all this—
besides these verses,
twelve, fifteen people have helped me,
ordinary people,
saints of Sarajevo,
that before the war I barely knew.
The State also showed a certain understanding
of my trouble,
but whenever I knocked on her door,
She was unavailable—
or in Geneva
or in New York.
Bivši Jugosloveni
Mustafi Cengicu
Svi smo mi
bivši Jugosloveni
izloženi istrebljenju
od strane bivše
jugoslovenske armije.
Former Yugoslavs
For Mustafa Cengicnek
We are
former Yugoslavs
subject to extinction
by a strain of the former
Yugoslav army.