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Hedley, Leslie Woolf: Jevrejin se vraća u Nemačku (A Jew Returns to Germany in Serbian)

Portre of Hedley, Leslie Woolf

A Jew Returns to Germany (English)

My feet touch these cobblestones
and I suddenly sense a cry from bodies
buried somewhere underneath.
But I must control my mind. I must move
as a ghost among six million forgotten ghosts.

I sniff the country like a man
hunting for his lost home,
and I suffocate ashamed to be alive.
Irony plants European guilt in me.

I feel like the last man
an a betrayed planet. I feel as though
the atmosphere is clogged with names
begging for their tombstones. I must control
my breathing for fear of inhaling
too many souls of murdered Jews.
My lungs are too fragile for such crimes.

I must behave as one newly resurrected.
But should I act the part of Christ?
Must a Jew become a Christian god again?

I will search German faces for some sign
or fleck of blood. I will look into their eyes
and watch for shadows of concentration camps.
There must be some memory that wrinkles the skin
or paints the pupil with a taint of shame.

But the avenues are clean, the parks tidy,
students study how to be German,
restaurants sell Coca-Cola, waiters eagerly serve
even wandering Jews who somehow survived,
and history has quickly washed the haunted air
until even existing phantoms are invisible there.



Uploaded byP. T.
Source of the quotationhttp://www.bpj.org

Jevrejin se vraća u Nemačku (Serbian)

Moje noge ovu kaldrmu dodiruju
i iznenada osetih vrisak negde
dole, u dubinu pokopanih tela.
Ali moram nadgledati svoj um. Moram se pokrenuti
kao duh među šest miliona zaboravljenim sablastima.
 
Njuškam krajolik kao čovek
ko izgubljen dom lovi,
i sramota me guši jer sam živ.
Ironija, greh Evrope u meni gori.
 
Osećam se kao poslednji čovek
na prevarenoj planeti. Osećam kao da je
okolina ispunjena imenima koji
vape za nadgrobnim spomenicima. I moram paziti
da ne bi s jednim jedinim dubokim uzdisajem
previše ubijene duše Jevreja udisao.
Pluća su mi krhke za takve zločine.
 
Moram se ponašati kao jedan nedavno vaskrsnuli.
Zar deo uloge Hrista me čeka?
Mora li Židov opet hrišćanskom bogu se moliti?
 
Biskaću na licima Nemaca neki znak
ili mrlju krvi. U njihovim očima
tražiću senke koncentracionih logora.
Neka uspomena mora da se ureže u jednu boru kože
ili oboji zenicu sa osećajem sramote.
 
No avenije su čiste, parkovi uredni,
učenici uče šta znači biti Nemac,
restorani Koka-Kolu nude, konobari uljudno služe
i Jevreja, slučajnog namernika, nekako preživelog,
i povest je brzo očistio uklet vazduh,
tu su već i postojeći fantomi nevidljivi.



Uploaded byP. T.
Source of the quotationhttp://feherilles.blogspot.hu

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