Dina Franin Republike Austrije 21 10000 Zagreb (CROATIA) (+385 1) 3772 233 dinafranin@yahoo.com Welcome My Books Poems Reviews Haiku |
Poetess / Pjesnikinja | |
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to my father SLAVONIJA OF MY YOUTH Eight hours driving by train and he is waiting for me one month a year, the only month a year during school holidays. The only time with you. I am observing corn fields from inside your Mercedes, Drava river, Vukovar, Daruvar, Djakovo - cathedral, lake near Orahovica and Osijek the heart of Slavonija. And my childish heart beats with restrain one month a year, the only month a year observing you to tell who you are, and why you are so far and why you left us and seeks for an answer in vain. And which way to go? Did she tell the truth when she didn't love you? And we are playing cards and swimming, mosquitos are biting in the evening and flocking together around lamp posts instead of buterflies. We are going for a walk you are making a show of me but I don't know who you are and you say you will die before I come of age. And I will never know who you were. And I understand and don't understand and it hurts me and doesn't hurt me and I love you and don't love you and I don't know! |
Chingi-lingi-charda in the evening, Cocta, chevapchichi Copacabana by day and swimming pools in Borovo, watermelon ice-cream in Vukovar. Small alike houses in the villages, warm, gentle. And geese and mongrels. Housemaid, and Irish setter, turtle-dove cooing in the morning, hydrangea bushes beside the well in the courtyard. Your friends lickspittles who are waiting. Voltures! Your women, hussies, your charm and one-day beard and too much sweat and social position. Grandma, my grandma being bored. Hens from the courtyard, near to my heart pecking golden pendants and eating chocolate and sleeping with one oye open gentle feathery creatures for my play one month a year until the nineth of March 1975. Land in Dalj and white painted house, vineyards and orchards - all yours, nothing mine! And all strange, and mine but belonging to someone else. Your Kent cigarettes with white filter and "Old spice" perfume. And that Sunday at one o'clock in the morning when the news came that there is no Slavonija for me any more. And sympathies of the people I don't like and they don't like me. Dry eye and emptiness until the end of my days, everlasting departure with no words. Slavonija: the region in north-eastern part of Croatia Vukovar, Daruvar, Djakovo, Orahovica, Osijek, Borovo, Dalj: the Slavonian villages Chingi-lingi-charda: the famous restaurant with the national specialties Cocta: the non-intoxicant drink made of dog-rose Chevapchichi: the famous national specialty, grilled grounded meat Copacabana: the popular name of the beach on the Drava river in Osijek | |
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