Mata [English translation]

Mata was born one Sunday

in 1940 something

father didn't even know about him

when he returned from the Way of the Cross

They lived so, modestly but proudly

in a village, small, quaint, Slavonian,

village women didn't love him

when he walks down the row, they pull the curtains shut

And I, I can see him now still,

returning the horses to the stables

the village talks, Mata doesn't care

he just drives the horses faster

And then 1990 arrived

father said, it's now or never

so Mata went, like in a dream

without a thing to his name, but with a big heart.

That winter, they killed his brother

burned his village, took the horses,

they found the father after a month or two

great sorrow broke him.

I was with Mata last Sunday

by the church after the morning mass,

with him his son and his brother's children,

"Where are you Mata! How are you?" I ask

He says, everything will be as before

the village will decorate the house gates again,

we will get everything back, but one thing never

the memories that disappeared from us.

• Artist:Miroslav Škoro