^{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

onda ne misliš na poeziju
ili na velika djela 
ili na politiku 
ne prkosiš Bogu 
malen su kao zrno graška 
dok čekaš da bol
prestane.

Kada te izbuše geleri
od minobacačke granate 
onda ne razmišljaš o dojmu 
koji ostavljaš na žene 
ili o nacionalnoj himni 
zavučeš se pod kamen 
i čekaš da bol prestane.

Kada se za tobom zatvore
vrata istražnog zatvora 
onda misliš o slobodi.