The Rijeka Women in Senegal

                                    (at the 1756 Expo)



There were few Rijeka women in Senegal,
The sky’s blue blued them on the out-voyage then,
until return the arrows given and the grail
- oars milled into shadows, Thebes of the black men.

Few of them returned, half were plague-ridden –
Half were cicatrised by cotton thread –
by ancient melted seals, one bidden
by milky privates, by a tormented head.

There were few Rijeka women in Senegal.
Few of them returned, half were plague-ridden.
In quarantine they handed them over to Baal –
fed them on snakes, grieved them with scorn unhidden.

Fired them with fires, through the mirror listening,
wherein a child is squirming, as in eyes a-glistening.

Riječke žene u Senegalu

Riječke žene u Senegalu

                                     (na sajmu 1756. godine)



Malo je riječkih žena bilo u Senegalu.
Do tamo ih je plâvilo plavetnilo neba,
do natrag strelice date njima i graalu
- vesla samljevena u sjene, crnačka Teba.

Malo ih se i vratilo, napola s kugom –
napola tetovirane vlaknima pamuka –
rastopljenim starim pečatima, slugom
mliječna spolovila, umom u kome je muka.

Malo je riječkih žena bilo u Senegalu.
Malo ih se i vratilo, napola s kugom.
U lazaretima su ih podavali Baalu –
hranili zmijama, plašili tugom i rugom.

Vatrili ih vatrom, slušali kroz zrcalo,
u kome se, k\'o u očima, dijete – koprcalo.