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Your name has no meaning.

Mine is to honour God,

though I've done little of that.

Yours is either pearl,

or maybe earth

(or is it virgin land?)

or favour or benevolence,

or sour grapes from

the base of the vine,

or some arrangement of letters

that sound good together

in another language.

(And they do).

In English it says Zašto,

but I don't know Serbian

and neither do you. Not really.

I learned only German,

perfunctorily for three years.

I remember how to swear hello

and to curse goodbye and

describe Die Katze and Der Hund

(or is it der Katze und die Hund)

as Schwarz or Weiß

Groß or Klein.

(You know the same in Serbian).

I think I recall you explaining

where your name is from

in some funny anecdote:

It sounds like this, but means that

and once…

…something…

At that time I didn't pay attention

and I missed the train of thought

and watched it from the platform after,

trying to reconnect the dots:

so many umlauts

and diaereses

and cedillas.

Your name has no meaning,

and unlike mine

(a Greek concoction)

yours must be some arrangement

of letters from an alphabet

jumbled up in ancient times

that somehow still sounds fine.

(And it does)