Noah in Salonta - Srgjan Sekulić

In Salonta¹
in front of the Orthodox church
a man was offering Salah.

Surprised locals,
mainly Romanians and Hungarians,
gathered
around the praying man.

In a language
completely unknown to them
with his palms open
to the sky
he was calling God.

Ya Rabb!
Ya Rabb!

A retired
history professor,
Lazaresku Dante Remus,
one of the observers
not knowing
why
remembered the writer Lajos Zilahy
born in Salonta
and his novel
“Ararat”.²

The praying man,
noticing the professor
after the end of the prayer
had tears
in his eyes.

As if he knew
that the professor
was just thinking
of his
birthplace…

The place
where
both according to the Quran
and the Bible
Noah (Nuh)
wrecked
with a lot of noise
and then silence.

It dawned on
Dante.

It was Noah
or Nuh.
Or it was just
his ghost...

in Salonta,
once the Pannonian Sea,³
where
a dry wind
blows.

---

Srgjan Sekulić (born 1993) Kosovo
Source: Blesok

1. Salonta is a town in western Romania, on the Hungarian border
2. Ararat is the first in a trilogy by Romanian author Lajos Zilahy and is about the Dukay family and society from the 18th to the 20th centuries in Hungary; Ararat is also the supposed place (in Turkey) where Noah's ark came to rest after the flood
3. Pannonian Sea - an ancient Micoene sea (23 - 7 million years ago) that was situated where modern-day Hungary and Croatia, and parts of Romania and Serbia