Trafika Europe 7 - Ukrainian Prayer

Faruk Šehić

strange passion it was that let me go hungry if only I could watch fish, even at dusk, when everything goes dark and the fish swim to and fro like black spindles, sensing the night, a time of agitation for animals and people alike. My grandmother’s house was stable, safe and indestructible. I waved to Mirdal who was going back into town along the asphalt road that leads upstream towards the Old Town. Mirdal was also a magician. He taught me to love nature and all living things, especially lizards, snakes, frogs and tortoises. I wouldn’t have known what to do with myself without him. I went into my Grandmother’s house as if I was sneaking in

beds slowly floating towards morning. I got out of the shopping bag and ran down to the sandy bankbelowmygrandmother’s house. I saw the fish in the water: graylings and trout. The river bank smelled of herbs, grasses, bullrushes and the sewage pipes sticking out of the green bank, and I breathed deeply of all those aromas. The fish moved about, nervously and timidly one moment, then calming down and waiting in one spot for a long time like sentries. That was my world: I was a fish adapted to life on land – living proof of Darwin’s evolution. I was the non- missing link, a transitional stage between fish and Homo sapiens , although I looked perfectly human. What a

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