Look for me in the words
that I didn't find

Blaga Dimitrova

Cercami nelle parole
che non ho trovato

​Blaga Dimitrova

​The White Rose (from Fires in November) by Attilio Bertolucci
(translated by Alberico Collina)

I will pick for you
the last rose in the garden,
the white rose that blooms
amid the first mists.
The greedy bees have visited it
until yesterday,
but it’s still so sweet
it makes one quiver.
It’s a portrait of you at thirty,
faintly forgetful, as you will be then.


La rosa bianca (da Fuochi in novembre) di Attilio Bertolucci

Coglierò per te
l'ultima rosa del giardino,
la rosa bianca che fiorisce
nelle prime nebbie.
Le avide api l'hanno visitata
sino a ieri,
ma è ancora così dolce
che fa tremare.
E' un ritratto di te a trent'anni,
un po' smemorata, come tu sarai allora.

During World War II, members of the Rom and Sinti populations were rounded up by the Nazis, who sent them to concentration camps. It is estimated that five hundred thousand of them were killed by Nazi Germany and her allies. Karl Stojka wrote this to remind the world that the Rom and Sinti populations are as invincible as flowers.


“We Roma and Sinti are the flowers of this earth.
You can crush us,
you can tear us out of the earth, you can gas us,
you can burn us,
you can kill us -
but like flowers we keep coming back ...”

Karl Stojka, Auschwitz survivor number Z-5742


“Wir Roma und Sinti sind die Blumen dieser Erde.
Man kann uns zertreten,
man kann uns aus der Erde reißen, man kann uns vergasen,
man kann uns verbrennen,
man kann uns erschlagen –
aber wie die Blumen kommen wir immer wieder...”

Karl Stojka, Auschwitz survivor number Z-5742


Alberico Collina