OTROK III
Narobe svet,
da mora otrok skrbeti,
da ne bo kar naenkrat
vsega konec,
da ga ne bodo spet zapustili
kot mesečniki,
ki še zase ne znajo skrbeti.
In predvsem, da ne bo prišla
vojna, ki je na pragu.
Narobe svet, da je samo njemu
nevzdržno, da ta hip v neki vojni
gorijo otroci.
Srce mu bo razneslo, zato
se je naučil misliti le nase,
zato dela vse prav,
ko šili barvice in jih po barvni
lestvici zlaga v škatlo.
Narobe svet,
da je vse na njem.
CHILD III
The world is upside down,
when a child must worry,
that it might all
end suddenly,
that they’ll be abandoned again
like sleepwalkers,
unable to care for themselves.
And above all, that war,
waiting at the doorstep, will arrive.
The world is upside down
when a child alone finds it unbearable that
children are burning in some distant war.
His heart is ready to burst, that’s why
he’s learned to think only of himself,
to do everything just right as he sharpens
colored pencils and places them
in a box, arranged by shade.
The world is upside down,
when everything depends on him.
(Translated from the Slovenian by Martha Kosir)
