So Andreanska was the woman from Slovakia who was with him when
he died, his friend.
This is called "Death Bed."
I should tell you a tiny little story.
Daniel was 11 when the Warsaw Pact countries invaded
Czechoslovakia.
And he wanted to do something.
His father was very active against this.
And what he did was he and his friends went out in Bratislava.
And they turned all the street signs around
and stole some of them.
And the Soviets got lost invading Bratislava.
They had tanks and trucks and armored vehicles
and everything.
So they mistakenly crossed into Austria.
So actually, they invaded a NATO country, you see.
And when they found out three kilometers in, where they were,
they turned around and run raced back.
Very few people know about this little invasion that happened.
But it could have been World War whatever.
OK, this is "Death Bed."
"So Andreanska, you were with him in his final hours,
and I give you that, speaking the language I understood only
in the kitchen of childhood.
For you, a lamplight language spoken in tomato gardens
and prison camps by those sent away
and those who let them be sent, so many words for no one
and nothing until history came for them
too with its years of industry and waste, a tram
pulling black smoke behind itself.
These are the suitcases manufactured in communist times
from balsa and tin.
Here are the books, ink on vellum,
sold by hoodlums on the black market.
We must have crossed the bridge a dozen times those nights.
But can you imagine-- alone, with no one
from whom to borrow a match.
There appeared a Russian deserter
from Afghan war, who drew caricatures for small change,
but never drew our likeness.
And some nights, there was singing beneath stone angels.
But we were otherwise alone.
Our Svetko's memories were of the scent of garlic fields
beside the river and of riding in the basket of his father's
bicycle along its banks.
On the night of the invasion, there
was a radio and red star jeeps that would become white star
jeeps in the west.
He, with his friends, turned the street signs around.
And the enemy by mistake, marched
into Austria, the only such invasion
in the history of that war.
So it is over, as you tell me.
When he closed his eyes, there were swans.
You took his hand on the last bridge and made him laugh.
You have my yes, Andreanska."