Bijah jednomjedan ludjak

Bijah jednomjedan ludjak

Bijah jednomjedan ludjak,

na dnu ulice mi kuca.

Imao sam mali ducan.

Prodavao sam zute knjige

ruzicastim djevojkama.

Ali jednog modrog dana

nesta mojega ducana,

izgori mi, rastopi se.

Mislim, pitam druge ljude

mora tako li da bude?

Drugi ljudi pametni su,

ne brinu se za te stvari.

© 1956, Ivan Slamnig

From: Odron

Once upon a time I used to be a madman

Once upon a time I used to be a madman

with a house at the end of the street.

I used to have a little shop.

I used to sell yellow books

to pink-cheeked girls.

But then on one of those blue days

my shop disappeared,

it burned to the ground, melted away.

I think about it, I ask other people:

does it really have to be that way?

Clever, those other people are,

they don’t care for things like that.

© Translation: 2003, Sibila Petlevski