You mentioned earlier that you have a friend-- your friend,
the translator for your poems.
Can you talk a little bit about what
it's like to see your poems in translation?
That's actually Ammiel Alcalay.
Professor from Brooklyn.
Born in Boston.
With a first generation of Americans.
Because his parents came from Balkan to the United States.
He's very good in Bosnian and extremely good in English, OK.
And I met him, first time, in 1996.
OK, when I came in the United States.
But he called me several times during the war,
and he published some of my work in magazines
in the United States.
And interesting, first time he called me in '93.
It was a horrible time without electricity, without anything.
Your phone lines are cut off and--
for some reason-- that night, phones start ringing.
And I find telephone and some voice from other side called.
Told me, this is--
I'm your uncle, I'm calling from New York.
It is New York in '93.
In Sarajevo, it was like from Mars.
And he says, about translating my things,
It's like putting water from one glass to other glass.
Which means it is the same water, OK.
Yes, I think he's an extremely good translator.
And I like his work.
And I feel very happy because I have an amazing translator
for my poetry.
And maybe-- for the reason why I chose to read in Bosnian, too--
it's because, in original, you have some small things
untranslatable.
And sometimes, I want to go back to the original to see.
And one friend of mine, he was American from Alexandria.
But during the war, he was in Northern Bosnia.
And after war stopped, he stayed in Sarajevo.
And sometimes, when he came to Alexandria,
we go out for dinner and conversation.
And during conversation, we switch from English to Bosnian.
From Bosnian to English.
And he told me, you know what, when I speak Bosnian,
I need a cigarette.
When I speak English, I don't need a cigarette.
And this is that cultural dividing line.
But, yeah.
Speaking about cigarette.
You have time for one more question.
Yeah.
In Sarajevo Blues.
Your section, Civilian.
It supports the role of civilian guilt that was experienced.
I was just curious if you could explain that more in depth.
OK.
Because, a reason why, a Susan Sontag sentence is precise.
And, in that moment, it is 1993 in Sarajevo.
You have more than 4,000 children killed in Sarajevo.
OK, that's not war.
That's murder, OK.
And I think I try to explain similar thing
in Innocent Civilians.
In fragment called Innocent Civilians.
And I describe a Serbian scholar who was some--
a Serbian nationalist ideologist.
Who came with idea.
That idea that million killed Serbs is nothing if we--
which means Serbians-- have a great Serbia.
Huge state with Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
And part of Croatia.
And, in all war, civilians are--
the death of civilians is calculated.
This is the first time that rape, in war, they prosecute.
Prosecute them, in war, in Hague Crime Tribunal.
They prosecute a rape as a war instrument.
Everything during this war was just killing civilians.
And everything in my life, in this moment,
is to kill a cigarette.
Thank you very much.
[APPLAUSE]