WEBVTT

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You mentioned earlier that you
have a friend-- your friend,

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the translator for your poems.

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Can you talk a
little bit about what

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it's like to see your
poems in translation?

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That's actually Ammiel Alcalay.

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Professor from Brooklyn.

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Born in Boston.

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With a first generation
of Americans.

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Because his parents came from
Balkan to the United States.

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He's very good in Bosnian and
extremely good in English, OK.

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And I met him,
first time, in 1996.

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OK, when I came in
the United States.

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But he called me several
times during the war,

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and he published some
of my work in magazines

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in the United States.

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And interesting, first
time he called me in '93.

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It was a horrible time without
electricity, without anything.

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Your phone lines
are cut off and--

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for some reason-- that
night, phones start ringing.

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And I find telephone and some
voice from other side called.

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Told me, this is--

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I'm your uncle, I'm
calling from New York.

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It is New York in '93.

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In Sarajevo, it
was like from Mars.

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And he says, about
translating my things,

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It's like putting water from
one glass to other glass.

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Which means it is
the same water, OK.

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Yes, I think he's an
extremely good translator.

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And I like his work.

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And I feel very happy because
I have an amazing translator

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for my poetry.

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And maybe-- for the reason why I
chose to read in Bosnian, too--

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it's because, in original,
you have some small things

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untranslatable.

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And sometimes, I want to go
back to the original to see.

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And one friend of mine, he
was American from Alexandria.

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But during the war, he
was in Northern Bosnia.

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And after war stopped,
he stayed in Sarajevo.

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And sometimes, when
he came to Alexandria,

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we go out for dinner
and conversation.

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And during conversation, we
switch from English to Bosnian.

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From Bosnian to English.

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And he told me, you know
what, when I speak Bosnian,

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I need a cigarette.

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When I speak English, I
don't need a cigarette.

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And this is that
cultural dividing line.

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But, yeah.

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Speaking about cigarette.

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You have time for
one more question.

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Yeah.

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In Sarajevo Blues.

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Your section, Civilian.

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It supports the role of civilian
guilt that was experienced.

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I was just curious if you could
explain that more in depth.

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OK.

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Because, a reason why, a Susan
Sontag sentence is precise.

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And, in that moment,
it is 1993 in Sarajevo.

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You have more than 4,000
children killed in Sarajevo.

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OK, that's not war.

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That's murder, OK.

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And I think I try to
explain similar thing

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in Innocent Civilians.

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In fragment called
Innocent Civilians.

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And I describe a Serbian
scholar who was some--

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a Serbian nationalist
ideologist.

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Who came with idea.

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That idea that million killed
Serbs is nothing if we--

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which means Serbians--
have a great Serbia.

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Huge state with Serbia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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And part of Croatia.

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And, in all war, civilians are--

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the death of civilians
is calculated.

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This is the first time that
rape, in war, they prosecute.

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Prosecute them, in war,
in Hague Crime Tribunal.

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They prosecute a rape
as a war instrument.

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Everything during this war
was just killing civilians.

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And everything in my
life, in this moment,

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is to kill a cigarette.

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Thank you very much.

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[APPLAUSE]

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