Today we have… a bit of a mystery. The song is Vasa Miskin.
It should be "Vaso Miskin", referring to both the national hero of Yugoslavia Vaso Miskin Crni (Serbo-Croatian Wiki, no English one sadly) and Ferhadija street in Sarajevo, theater of various bombings during the siege of Sarajevo, which was once called Vaso Miskin street. This, together with Markale in the chorus, which refers to the Markale massacres, makes this an anti-war song, and makes one expect it to be in Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian (BCMS from now on).
One looks at the lyrics on Saletti's site (this is Banda Ikona again), and sees only French, with a translation or spelling error. Then one goes to look up the video, and figures out that a., it was a spelling mistake (it's yeux not jeux), and b., there are two whole mysterious verses. Are they in a Slavic language?
One asks Quora, and someone tries Indonesian, and in the comments a Croat (I think) answers he thinks it's not Slavic, then listens again and changes his mind, then from a partial transcription you think of Stari Most (aka Granata s Mrkovića), and get a crazy idea: "bombed Croatian". What is this? It's the idea that these guys have taken a text in Croatian and brutally mangled it to give the effect of a bombed place, which is unrecognizable even to those who know it, until they compare it with the way it looked before, and go "Wow, it's so devastated!".
Welp, so what is the original? Heh. Probably a war poem, right? Maybe the same author as Granata s Mrkovića, i.e. Izet Sarajlić? It's hard to come by his poems: only three are online, aside from Granata s Mrkovića which is only online thanks to Saletti and Stari Most. They are all here. Well, that's all those I found at least. There are other sites with Trave that I only just saw, but I'm done searching now. So, part of verse 1 is Stari Most, part of the rest of verse 1 and part of verse 2 is possibly from Trave, by Izet, but the rest is unfindable. Fortunately it's easy enought to "fix manually", i.e. reconstruct with guesses.
And then, in the middle of this research, as I have translated the chorus to English and the known part of verse 1 to "bombed Italian", this thing gets comments saying this text is not mangled but some weird dialect of Croatian with weird loanwords. When a translation gets submitted, it has holes, and makes assumptions. I've been working on this thing, between video and description, for like four days (which is why I posted it on 17/8 when it was planned for 14/8), so I'll leave the explanation of this view to the video description (the link to the video will be in the index next to this post, it's being uploaded as I write), and possibly Lyricstranslate, if I ever find the willpower to add it to the note there. The poems the originals are from can be found at Lyricstranslate.
So who is right? Am I right with my "bombed Croatian" idea, or is that commenter right with "weird dialect"? I am assuming the originals, he is assuming some words. How do we know who's right? I guess we wait for Saletti to tell us. I wrote him a long-ass email filled with observations and questions about the album Stari Most, hopefully he will answer soon.
It would be a shame though if the "bombed Croatian" idea was wrong, because the idea is fantastic per se, it worked like a charm on the Croat I mentioned above, it gives an effect of going over a bombing site from side to side, with the extremities being less unrecognizable than the middle, and with one extremity being more bombed than the other, and moreover the originals are a mashup, which suggests the devastated country itself was a patchwork in some sense, whether culturally or otherwise.
In the meantime though, I completed my translation, and propose it here. More specifically, I will give you the originals in italics before each bombed part, just like in the video I will make on the same day I post this. The translation of the chorus was made 9/8/21 at 2:24, the first 4 lines of verse 1 date to that night or the following morning, and the rest of the "bombed Italian" is from 12:18-12:32 of 11/8/21. Let's see this!
It should be "Vaso Miskin", referring to both the national hero of Yugoslavia Vaso Miskin Crni (Serbo-Croatian Wiki, no English one sadly) and Ferhadija street in Sarajevo, theater of various bombings during the siege of Sarajevo, which was once called Vaso Miskin street. This, together with Markale in the chorus, which refers to the Markale massacres, makes this an anti-war song, and makes one expect it to be in Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian (BCMS from now on).
One looks at the lyrics on Saletti's site (this is Banda Ikona again), and sees only French, with a translation or spelling error. Then one goes to look up the video, and figures out that a., it was a spelling mistake (it's yeux not jeux), and b., there are two whole mysterious verses. Are they in a Slavic language?
One asks Quora, and someone tries Indonesian, and in the comments a Croat (I think) answers he thinks it's not Slavic, then listens again and changes his mind, then from a partial transcription you think of Stari Most (aka Granata s Mrkovića), and get a crazy idea: "bombed Croatian". What is this? It's the idea that these guys have taken a text in Croatian and brutally mangled it to give the effect of a bombed place, which is unrecognizable even to those who know it, until they compare it with the way it looked before, and go "Wow, it's so devastated!".
Welp, so what is the original? Heh. Probably a war poem, right? Maybe the same author as Granata s Mrkovića, i.e. Izet Sarajlić? It's hard to come by his poems: only three are online, aside from Granata s Mrkovića which is only online thanks to Saletti and Stari Most. They are all here. Well, that's all those I found at least. There are other sites with Trave that I only just saw, but I'm done searching now. So, part of verse 1 is Stari Most, part of the rest of verse 1 and part of verse 2 is possibly from Trave, by Izet, but the rest is unfindable. Fortunately it's easy enought to "fix manually", i.e. reconstruct with guesses.
And then, in the middle of this research, as I have translated the chorus to English and the known part of verse 1 to "bombed Italian", this thing gets comments saying this text is not mangled but some weird dialect of Croatian with weird loanwords. When a translation gets submitted, it has holes, and makes assumptions. I've been working on this thing, between video and description, for like four days (which is why I posted it on 17/8 when it was planned for 14/8), so I'll leave the explanation of this view to the video description (the link to the video will be in the index next to this post, it's being uploaded as I write), and possibly Lyricstranslate, if I ever find the willpower to add it to the note there. The poems the originals are from can be found at Lyricstranslate.
So who is right? Am I right with my "bombed Croatian" idea, or is that commenter right with "weird dialect"? I am assuming the originals, he is assuming some words. How do we know who's right? I guess we wait for Saletti to tell us. I wrote him a long-ass email filled with observations and questions about the album Stari Most, hopefully he will answer soon.
It would be a shame though if the "bombed Croatian" idea was wrong, because the idea is fantastic per se, it worked like a charm on the Croat I mentioned above, it gives an effect of going over a bombing site from side to side, with the extremities being less unrecognizable than the middle, and with one extremity being more bombed than the other, and moreover the originals are a mashup, which suggests the devastated country itself was a patchwork in some sense, whether culturally or otherwise.
In the meantime though, I completed my translation, and propose it here. More specifically, I will give you the originals in italics before each bombed part, just like in the video I will make on the same day I post this. The translation of the chorus was made 9/8/21 at 2:24, the first 4 lines of verse 1 date to that night or the following morning, and the rest of the "bombed Italian" is from 12:18-12:32 of 11/8/21. Let's see this!
Već trideseti sat kako smo Sa svih strana zasuti granatama. Jedna upravo ovog časa Prolijeće iznad moje pjesme. Triceski kalo zmo Sa zvih strana rjeti kranapa Žjedna pravo uasa Užjezňi z nabu že pijezme Trave će nas moliti Da ih gazimo svojom mladošću. Iznad moje pjesme Kog historija tragala? Variski vamveluti Prijo nus somus ne stori Jon mud dok pjeniska Duk historia tramaɣa Réfrain Vasa, Vasa Miskin, J'ai perdu les yeux de mes enfants! Marka-, Markale, J'ai entendu la plainte de mes enfants! Trave će nas moliti Da ih gazimo svojom mladošću. Iznad moje pjesme Nježnim sonetama Valeskin la maj luti Ma io nus samus no histori Jut motno pjed ijeniska I trazim muj sa zvoji jeji me Kog historija tragala? Mene što jesi radio? Za što tebe volim? Oh! Za što tebe volim? Oh! Duk historia tramala Semsta že avi radio Roštu tepen gulljo Rušto tebe volljo Réfrain x2 J'ai perdu les yeux de mes enfants! J'ai entendu la plainte de mes enfants! |
Già da tredici ore siamo qua, Da ogni parte piovono granate. Una proprio ora Sta volando sopra la mia poesia. Già treci re fiam qua Da ogni parte tice crànapa Vuna propió morà Talanso ral amà pesīa L'erba ci pregherà Che la calpestiamo nella nostra gioventù. Sopra la mia poesia, La storia chi ha cercato? L'ebore ge percaurà Cultaimu nla stra gevontà. Surtu ma poseua, Cu la storia cernago? Refrain Vasa, Vasa Miskin, Of my children I have lost the eyes! Marka-, Markale, Of my children I have heard the cries! L'erba ci pregherà Che la calpestiamo nella nostra gioventù. Sopra la mia poesia, La storia chi ha cercato? L'ebora ci percaurà Caltaimu nla stra gevontà. E surtu ma podeseua, E can taronri sominetite, La storia chi ha cercato? Cos'hai fatto di me? Perché ti amo? Oh! Perché ti amo? Oh! Cu la storia cernalo? Causcai fatto tiau demai? Curchi gin ano? Oh! Curche ti amo? Oh! Refrain x2 Of my children I have lost the eyes! Of my children I have heard the cries! |
No comments:
Post a Comment