^{translated from the Croatian by Nina Bajsić}

You don’t think about poetry then 
or about great deeds 
or about politics 
you don’t defy God.
you are as small as a pea 
as you wait for the pain
to go away.

When you’re riddled with shrapnel 
from a mortar grenade 
you don’t think about the effect
you have on women
or about the national anthem. 
you crawl under a rock
as you wait for the pain
to go away.

When the prison door
bangs shut behind your back— 
that’s when you think about freedom.

Kada se lupiš sa sjekirom po nozidok cijepaš drva

ondane misliš na poeziju
ilina velika djela 
ilina politiku 
neprkosiš Bogu 
malensi kao zrno graška 
dokčekaš da bol
prestane.

Kadate izbuše geleri
odminobacačke granate 
ondane razmišljaš o dojmu 
kojiostavljaš na žene 
ilio nacionalnoj himni 
zavučešse pod kamen 
ičekaš da bol prestane.

Kadase za tobom zatvore
vrataistražnog zatvora 
ondamisliš o slobodi.