About one Trip to Village Hotkovo On the Balkan Peninsula

For Nebojša Gajtanović

Quiet! Nebojša, when we go by this road!

Quiet!

Do you know what kind of road is this?

On the left, when you turn, on the hill Hober, is an old Latin graveyard.

And under Hober, an orthodox graveyard

Where our neighbours Serbs are burying their dead. So,

you can be buried there too.

Here on the right, hill Grkovina,

on it, an old Greek grave.

And a little further, a Muslim graveyard

(Still Turks had fenced it)

There are buried all who were dear to me. So,

I can be buried there too.

Quieter!

Do you know what kind of armies used to go by this road?

They came and went, Greeks, Romans and Ottomans.

And our lineages, odds and ends of history,

Once will be finally put down in readers.

Maybe, Mongols, Germans or Ugrians will come by again.

Let’s stop here

Let’s try a silence a little bit,

Let’s listen to destiny a little bit.

Let’s learn what the road is.