some very small reasons why I feel European

Insignificant kitchen windows smelling of pancakes
look onto the courtyards of my beloved Agram ⁽¹⁾
like the windows of the thin rooms of spinster servants
in the same insignificant buildings in the forlorn outskirts
of Pest, of Vienna, of Prague.
Perhaps even of Alma-Ata.
Tall, yellowish buildings with decrepit front doors
smell of the piss of men and of dogs.
“In our country” as “in their country”.
While the pleasure-loving nouveaux riches of fortress-Europe
shut themselves behind reinforced blinds.
A word bearing an echo of remote Germanic roots,
where blenden, to blind, suggests deception.
These, then, are some very small reasons why I feel European.

Melita Richter was born in Zagreb, Croatia, Yugoslavia. After graduating in sociology in the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Zagreb, she went on to receive an M.A. in town planning from the same university. She has collaborated with specialised and cultural magazines in her own country as well as in Italy and abroad. Since 1980 she has lived in Trieste, where she works as a sociologist, translator, essayist and cultural mediator. Author of several studies in the field of sociology, she has participated actively in international debates on the Balkan question, on European integration and on the position of women in contemporary society. She is co-author of the book Conflittualità balcanica, integrazione europea (Editre 1993); editor of L'Altra Serbia, gli intellettuali e la guerra (Selene 1996); and editor, with Maria Bacchi, of Le guerre cominciano a primavera. Soggetti e genere nel conflitto jugoslavo (Rubbettino 2003). As writer of poetry she has won the 1st national poetry prize "Belmoro" (Reggio Calabria 2003) and the 3rd prize in the competition "Una poesia per il Ghetto" (Trieste 2002).