{"id":169898,"date":"2025-02-18T11:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T16:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=169898"},"modified":"2025-02-20T12:02:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T17:02:53","slug":"more-from-scraps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/","title":{"rendered":"More from Scraps<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Ann Craven, Moon (Paris Review Roof, NYC, 9-19-24, 8:40 PM), 2024,<\/em> 2024, oil on linen, 14 x 14″. From our Winter issue,<\/a> no. 250.<\/p><\/div>\n

Abdulah Sidran (1944\u20132024) was born to a family of Bosnian Muslims during the occupation of what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Croatian fascist Usta\u0161e. After World War II, the region became, under Tito, a part of the new socialist republic of Yugoslavia, and Sidran’s father, Mehmed Sidran, became a Communist Party functionary. After Yugoslavia\u2019s break with the Soviet-led alliance known as Cominform, Mehmed became one of the suspected Soviet sympathizers arrested en masse by Tito\u2019s government. The following excerpt recounts a \u201cfamily meeting\u201d in the years after Sidran\u2019s father returned from his imprisonment\u00a0 in the forced-labor camp of Goli Otok, a formerly uninhabited island in the Adriatic Sea. You can read more of the <\/em>Review\u2019s selections from Sidran\u2019s memoir,<\/em> Scraps<\/a>, in our new Winter issue, no. 250.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The roof was leaking again. Dad stopped coming home, and Mom lined the floor with bowls and pots and pans and other dishes everywhere the water was dripping. Because the water dripped so much, Mom got up in the night to empty the containers and returned them to the same places. We always heard when she got up in the night, and we knew what she was doing as soon as she put the dishes back and the drops of water sounded different, falling into the now empty containers. The worst was when the roof leaked over our beds. We had to move them wherever and however just so the water wouldn\u2019t drip on them. Mom said, My God, what have I done wrong? Whenever we heard Mom crying at night, we knew Dad had come home. Mom said, At least don\u2019t wake the kids. Can you promise? Dad pretended not to hear her and said, Conference. Women to the other room. So we had to get up and go over to the table, and Mom took Dina to the other room. Dad sat at the table and cracked his knuckles. Ekrem, Edo, and I sat in silence, waiting for Dad to talk. Dad said, Lest you think I\u2019m drunk, Ekrem will lead the meeting. Ekrem asked what was the agenda, even though it was nighttime, and then Dad took the floor and spoke about his life and communism. You boys will live to the year 2000. By then communism must prevail, you got that? We got that even though we were sleepy. Have you read Germinal<\/em>, he asked me, and I lied that I had. He told us how he\u2019d gone to school with nanule<\/em> on his feet and how we had no right to ask for anything beyond that, even though we didn\u2019t ask for anything. While talking, Dad walked around the room, and then he sat down again at the table or on the couch. When he waved a hand from the couch, we knew the meeting was over. To these meetings, he always brought new words. Always a different one. One night he kept saying pretermit<\/em>, others, permanently<\/em> or withdrawal<\/em>. We didn\u2019t know what those words meant, but we used them to tell one conference from another. Ekrem said, You know, that night he kept sayin\u2019 competent<\/em>. I said, I know.<\/p>\n

Mom was crying in the other room, but you could barely hear it because she held a pillow over her face. Dina asked, Why are you crying, Mom? We\u2019ll be happy one day, too. Everyone has to be happy one day. Mom said, When the soil covers me, that\u2019s when I\u2019ll be happy.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Translated from the Bosnian by Ena Selimovi\u0107.<\/em><\/p>\n

Abdulah Sidran (1944-2024) was a writer of poetry, prose, and screenplays, including the Palme d\u2019Or winner<\/em> When Father Was Away on Business.<\/p>\n

Ena Selimovi\u0107 is a founding member of the translators\u2019 collective Turkoslavia. Her translation of Ma\u0161a Kolanovi\u0107\u2019s <\/em>Underground Barbie\u00a0is forthcoming from Sandorf Passage in spring 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou boys will live to the year 2000. By then communism must prevail, you got that? We got that even though we were sleepy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4393],"tags":[68819,67827,68812],"class_list":["post-169898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-person","tag-abdulah-sidran","tag-featured","tag-issue-250"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMore from Scraps by Abdulah Sidran<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"February 18, 2025 \u2013 \u201cYou boys will live to the year 2000. By then communism must prevail, you got that? We got that even though we were sleepy.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"More from Scraps by Abdulah Sidran\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"February 18, 2025 \u2013 \u201cYou boys will live to the year 2000. By then communism must prevail, you got that? We got that even though we were sleepy.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-18T16:55:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-20T17:02:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/craven-11-1000px.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abdulah Sidran\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abdulah Sidran\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Abdulah Sidran\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e2957993513bebd9445e704ec4106889\"},\"headline\":\"More from Scraps\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-18T16:55:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-20T17:02:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/\"},\"wordCount\":675,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/craven-11-1000px.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Abdulah Sidran\",\"Featured\",\"issue 250\"],\"articleSection\":[\"First Person\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/\",\"name\":\"More from Scraps by Abdulah Sidran\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/craven-11-1000px.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-18T16:55:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-20T17:02:53+00:00\",\"description\":\"February 18, 2025 \u2013 \u201cYou boys will live to the year 2000. By then communism must prevail, you got that? We got that even though we were sleepy.\u201d\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/craven-11-1000px.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/craven-11-1000px.png\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"Moon (Paris Review Roof, NYC, 9-19-24, 8:40 PM), 2024, 2024, oil on linen, 14 x 14\\\".\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"More from Scraps\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e2957993513bebd9445e704ec4106889\",\"name\":\"Abdulah Sidran\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d4e35ec46ef3517a9ca76ac50116c943debf60ceec5c4c2c154e5da2d4c3aa4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d4e35ec46ef3517a9ca76ac50116c943debf60ceec5c4c2c154e5da2d4c3aa4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Abdulah Sidran\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/asidran\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"More from Scraps by Abdulah Sidran","description":"February 18, 2025 \u2013 \u201cYou boys will live to the year 2000. By then communism must prevail, you got that? We got that even though we were sleepy.\u201d","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"More from Scraps by Abdulah Sidran","og_description":"February 18, 2025 \u2013 \u201cYou boys will live to the year 2000. By then communism must prevail, you got that? We got that even though we were sleepy.\u201d","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2025-02-18T16:55:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-20T17:02:53+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/craven-11-1000px.png","width":1000,"height":1000,"type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Abdulah Sidran","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Abdulah Sidran","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/"},"author":{"name":"Abdulah Sidran","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e2957993513bebd9445e704ec4106889"},"headline":"More from Scraps","datePublished":"2025-02-18T16:55:08+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-20T17:02:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/"},"wordCount":675,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/craven-11-1000px.png","keywords":["Abdulah Sidran","Featured","issue 250"],"articleSection":["First Person"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/","name":"More from Scraps by Abdulah Sidran","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/craven-11-1000px.png","datePublished":"2025-02-18T16:55:08+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-20T17:02:53+00:00","description":"February 18, 2025 \u2013 \u201cYou boys will live to the year 2000. By then communism must prevail, you got that? We got that even though we were sleepy.\u201d","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/craven-11-1000px.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/craven-11-1000px.png","width":1000,"height":1000,"caption":"Moon (Paris Review Roof, NYC, 9-19-24, 8:40 PM), 2024, 2024, oil on linen, 14 x 14\"."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/18\/more-from-scraps\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"More from Scraps"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e2957993513bebd9445e704ec4106889","name":"Abdulah Sidran","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d4e35ec46ef3517a9ca76ac50116c943debf60ceec5c4c2c154e5da2d4c3aa4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d4e35ec46ef3517a9ca76ac50116c943debf60ceec5c4c2c154e5da2d4c3aa4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Abdulah Sidran"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/asidran\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169898"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169983,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169898\/revisions\/169983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}