Mala kutija

Mala kutija

Maloj kutiji rastu prvi zubi

I raste joj mala dužina

Mala širina mala praznina

I uopšte sve što ima

Mala kutija raste dalje

I sad je u njoj orman

U kome je ona bila

I raste dalje i dalje i dalje

I sad je u njoj soba

I kuća i grad i zemlja

I svet u kome je ona bila

Mala kutija seća se svog detinjstva

I od prevelike čežnje

Postaje opet mala kutija

Sada je u maloj kutiji

Ceo svet mali malecan

Lako ga možete u džep staviti

Lako ukrasti lako izgubiti

Čuvajte malu kutiju

The Little Box

The little box gets her first teeth

And her little length

Little width little emptiness

And all the rest she has

The little box continues growing

The cupboard that she was inside

Is now inside her

And she grows bigger bigger bigger

Now the room is inside her

And the house and the city and the earth

And the world she was in before

The little box remembers her childhood

And by a great great longing

She becomes a little box again

Now in the little box

You have the whole world in minature

You can easily put it in a pocket

Easily steal it easily lose it

Take care of the little box

(translated by Charles Simic)

The Little Box

The little box grows her first teeth

And her little length grows

Her little width her little emptiness

And everything she has

The little box grows and grows

And now inside her is the cupboard

She was in before

And she grows and grows and grows

And now inside her is the room

And the house and town and land

And the world she was in before

The little box remembers her childhood

And by wishing really hard

Becomes a little box again

Now inside the little box

Is the whole world all teeny-weeny

Easy to slip in your pocket

Easy to steal easy to lose

Look after the little box

(Translated by Anne Pennington and Francis R. Jones)

LA PETITE BOÎTE

La petite boîte voit pousser ses premières dents

Grandir sa petite longueur

Sa petite largeur son petit vide

Tout ce qu’elle possède

La petite boîte grandit encore

Voici qu’elle enferme l’armoire

Qui la contenait

Elle grandit encore et encore

Voici qu’elle enferme la chambre

La maison la ville la Terre

L’univers qui la contenait

La petite boîte se souvient de son enfance

Et par nostalgie excessive

Elle redevient une petite boîte

Maintenant dans la petite boîte

Voici l’univers petit tout petit

Vous pouvez sans peine le mettre en poche

Le voler ou le perdre

Veillez à la petite boîte

(Traduit du serbe par Maria Béjanovska)