Kad su Srbi čitali ušima

Kad su Srbi čitali ušima

Kad su Srbi čitali ušima, 

Imali su velike usmene biblioteke, 

Guslari su bili knjige, 

Knjige su same išle po narodu, 

Govorile su, mogle su se čuti, 

Umesto lepih ilustracija 

Svirale su i pevale.

Kad su Srbi čitali ušima,

Dovoljno je bilo da odu na pijac,

Pred crkvu, ili na vašar,

Da čuju neku knjigu,

Da je nauče napamet,

Tako su se uzgredno i školovali,

Pa su se sa pijace vraćali kao iz škole

Sa celom bibliotekom u glavi.

Kad su Srbi čitali ušima, 

Učitelji su im bili slepci i prosjaci, 

Možemo reći da je to bio nepismen narod, 

Al ne možemo reći da je bio i nenačitan, 

Kao sada.

When The Serbs Read With Their Ears

When the Serbs read with their ears,

They had large oral libraries,

The Gusle-players were the books,

The books walked by themselves through the people,

They talked and could be heard,

Instead of beautiful illustrations

They played and sung.

When the Serbs read with their ears,

It was enough to go to a market,

To a churchyard or to a fair,

To hear a book,

To learn it by heart,

So they educated themselves, by the way,

And they returned from the market like from a school

With a whole library in head.

When the Serbs read with their ears,

Their teachers have been blind men and beggars,

We could say that it was an illiterate folk,

But we can't say it was not a well-read one,

Like now.

(Translated by Slobodan Cekić)

  Za Meju ♥