Da Sve Ovo Preživim

by Izet Sarajlić

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

by Izet Sarajlić

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.

translated from Bosnian by Sara Nović

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Izet “Kiko” Sarajlić (1930-2002) was born in Doboj, Bosnia and Herzegovina to an underage mother and a railway worker father. He moved to Sarajevo at the age of fifteen, and published his first published his first collection, “U Sustretu” (In a Meeting), at age nineteen. Sarajlić went on to become the one of the former Yugoslavia’s most renowned poets, producing over thirty books of poetry, essays, memoirs and political texts. He also served as a long-time professor at the philosophy college of the University of Sarajevo, and worked to institute Sarajevo Poetry Days, now an international book festival. The following poems are from his 1993 collection “Sarajevska Ratna Zbirka” (Sarajevo War Journal), which he wrote during the first weeks of the siege of Sarajevo. Though he was injured during a shelling that damaged his home, he remained in the city throughout the war. Of the collection Sarajlić has been quoted as saying, “this is the only book which I can say I would have loved never to have written.”

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.

Circumference

Poetry in Translation

Da Sve Ovo Preživim

To Survive All This