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from Part IV - The Years after 1945
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2018
Rupko Godec was born in 1925 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Godec was initially interned in Perugia and then afterwards deported to Dachau on October 11, 1943 (prisoner number 56,271). Here he became co-editor of the Dachau camp paper “Dawn,” secretly conceived for the Slovenian youth. This paper, in spite of all dangers connected with publishing it, appeared twice.
The following poem was written in 1946 and finally finished on October 18, 1947, and is dedicated to the fellow prisoners who tragically perished in Dachau. The typewritten original manuscript is still in the possession of the author.
Krik v noči
Krik brezizrazen
zažrl se v prostor je prazen
in zdramil me sredi je spanja.
Tovariš kraj mene se vzpel je v vročici.
Kakor da sanja
strašne stvari,
so njegove oči
zastrmele se v mene.
S strahom sem gledal njegove oči,
ki tako brez moči
so v mene strmele.
Vse dolge noči
so suhe njegove oči:
v njih solz več ni.
V mene strmela so lica upadla
in suhe kosti,
prekrite s prosojno le kožo.
Vse dolge noči
so suhe njegove kosti:
življenja v njih ni.
Tedaj je iztegnil roko v temino
in hripav je glas napolnil praznino:
“Ne v krematorij!
Ne … ne …
Joj,
v glavi mi žge
prokleti ta plamen.
Pustite me!
Nisem žival ne kamen,
človek sem, kakor ste vi …”
Zamrle so v ustih besede
in ugasnile motne oči.
In zopet bo jutri eden sežgan,
po njivah pepel bo njegov razmetan.
Tako je šlo iz dneva v dan
in ljudi bilo je še mnogo.
Pomislil sem
in vztrepetalo je moje srce:
Kdaj pride vrsta na me?
A Scream at Night
An expressionless scream
cuts into the empty space
and jolts me awake.
My bunkmate sits up in a fever.
As though he were dreaming
horrible things,
his eyes fix on me.
Frightened, I look at his eyes
as they stare at me
powerlessly.
Night after long night
his eyes remain dry:
they have no more tears.
The sunken cheeks,
the matchstick limbs,
translucent skin stretched taut.
Night after long night
these matchstick limbs:
there is no life in them.
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