Vladislav Petković Dis - Among my own

In my heart it's midnight. In it, sometimes smolders

The thought that you still live, my young landscape.

My beautiful star, mother and a slave,

God! What could she be doing in Serbia today?

It's spring where you are. Swallows have come.

Revived the waters, lily of the valley and roses,

And smells the ground which keeps growing

Into grave and silence, my distant friend.

A night of yours. You walk home slowly

Through the streets of fear, and your soul weeps.

Your hungry eyes, oh my beautiful dawn,

Feeds the mother's love: "Long live the children".

You walk into the room. Tears are already choking you.

And our two flowers sprung from four wars*

Are in your lap, drying your tears:

"Mom, why are you crying? Did dad write?"

In the midst of great suffering an innocent question

Deepens the deep wound, the cry shakes your chest...

Outside it's light, as if before the daybreak.

As if graves and people are going to rise.

You gathered your tears in the kids' hair.

I'm looking at you all now, next to the poor feast,

Your face brightens: that's the soul of a saint

Kissing your forehead, oh my bright life.

Behind the poem

*-the four wars are, as follows: First Balkan War (1912-1913) (which Dis counts as two wars), Second Balkan War (1913) and World War I (1914-1918). 

Vladislav Petkovic Dis gained popularity as a poet only after his death. During his life, he worked as a journalist and a war correspondent in the Balkan Wars. This song was written in 1916, during World War 1. He had joined the Serbian army in their retreat to Corfu the year before, and then he was sent to France to write about the tragedy. He missed his wife Hristina and two kids, Gordana and Mutimir, and wrote this song imagining what life is like for them now that he's away. Sadly, he never returned back to his family - the ship he was on, which was supposed to send him back to Corfu, was attacked by a German submarine in the Ionic sea and Dis drowned.