Ja sam stranac

Ja sam stranac

I am a nobody. Who are you?

E. Dickinson

Ja sam stranac! Dobar vecer

Da l’ si i ti stranac?

Dva smo, znači? Nemoj reći, jer

stavit će nam lanac.

Tužno li je biti domać

i prosto, poput žabe,

kreketat do u božju ponoć

sred zadimljene grabe!

© 1951, Ivan Slamnig

From: Analecta, 1971

I am a Foreigner

I am a nobody. Who are you?

E. Dickinson

I am a Foreigner! Good evening.

Are you a foreigner too?

It makes us a couple, isn’t it so? Don’t tell, because

they’ll chain up me and you.

It is sad to be a native

and it is boorish, like a frog,

croaking all night long

from a fuming bog!

© Translation: 2003, Sibila Petlevski

I am a Foreigner

I am a nobody. Who are you? 

E. Dickinson

Am a foreigner. Good evening

Could you be one, as well?

Two of us, then? Please, say nothing, 

they'd chain us, sure as hell.

It's so sad to be a native

and simply, like a frog,

croak until the God-blessed midnight

amidst a steaming bog!

(Translated by Slobodan Cekić)

  Za Meju ♥