Tadeja's strong poems

English translation below each of the two poems. The original language is Slovene. 'Krik' was recited by Urška at the preliminary 'Dream 2007' show in Sandweiler (Luxembourg) on 20 and 21 April. I will let them stand in their own right.

Pridi
Pridi. Pridi in spusti se
z mano v neskončne
globine.
Na dno oceana.
Tam bova kapljici.
Solzi trpljenja
in žalosti, nesreče
veselja in smeha
solzi življenja.
Z roko v roki
ko val naju odnese
stran od obale
stran od ljudi.
Pridi, da se izgubiva v valovih,
v toplih globinah,
da se potopiva skupaj
s sončnim zahodom.
Pridi!
Morje šumi.

Come
Come. Come and descend
With me into the endless
Deepness.
To the bottom of the ocean.
There, we will be mere drops.
Tears of pain and suffering
And sadness, unhappiness,
Of joy and laughter,
Tears of life.
Hand in hand
Dragged by the billows
Away from the coast
Away from the world.
Come, let’s get lost in the waves,
Into the warm depths,
Let’s dive together
With the sunset.
Come!
The sound of the ocean.

Krik
Šla bi ven in zavpila.
Zavpila bi tvoje ime
tako močno, da bi se
ob kriku spremenila
v sončni prah.
Le Bog in jaz bi ga slišala
in ti, daleč stran, bi vedel.
Ne moreš ubežati kriku
mojega hrepenenja
in nemir iz moje duše
bi se preselil vate.
Ti si kriv.
Tebi bodo sodili
zaradi mojega krika,
sonce, ljudje, drevesa, reke....
In nikoli, nikoli več
ne boš mogel ubežati
mojemu kriku.
Preganjal te bo
v najintimnejših trenutkih,
vedno bo tam.
In jaz s teboj
kot večni sodnik z razsodbo:
KRIV SI.

Scream
I want to scream out.
I want to scream out your name
So loud, that the scream
Would turn me into
Sundust.
Only God and me would hear it
And you, far away, you’d know.
You can’t escape the scream
Of my desperation
And my restless anxiety
Would capture your soul.
You’re to blame.
You will be judged
For my scream,
By the sun, the people, the trees, the rivers….
And never, ever will you
Be able to escape from
My scream.
It will hunt you down
Into the inmost recesses of your soul,
It will always be there.
And I will be there
Like an eternal judge with the verdict:
GUILTY.

Three more signs

The first one is from the Slovenian town of Piran. What's funny about it is that a Frenchspeaker would easily tend to pronounce 'Kud Sac' similarly as 'cul-de-sac', which means 'dead end street' (actually, the term 'cul-de-sac' is also used in English). Fancy sign to indicate a dead-end-street…

The text on the plaque means 'Cultural-artistic society' in Slovene ('Kulturno-umetniško društvo'), then in Italian (SAC), followed by the name (Karol Pahor) and the town in both languages.

The next is also from Slovenia. One you see quite a lot near schools, in many countries ― I just thought it's pretty original to let the kids actually break the frame and thus create a meta feel about a simple road sign!

The text translates as 'We are here again! ― School ― Drive carefully!'.

The third is not really a sign actually. The pic was taken in Cusco, Peru, at the San Pedro market. Odd phenomenon that they sell perfumes, which so explicitly, in pictures and words, advertise that they are supposed to attract women.

Notice especially the one called '7 Machos' ― wonder if such brand name would sell in Europe…

Thank you to Luka for the translations from Slovene!

From stotin to stork

Pictures of Slovenia's Euro Coinage

As of today, pictures of Slovenia's euro coins can be viewed at http://www.evro.si, the central web site for the implementation of the euro campaign. The campaign is run by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and the Bank of Slovenia in collaboration with partner institutions.

Images of the national side of new euro coins are available at both the Slovenian (http://www.evro.si/o-evru/slovenski-kovanci/) and English (http://www.evro.si/en/slo-and-euro/slovene-euro-coins/) web sites. The images are also available in print format.

Slovenian euro coins are being minted by the Mint of Finland. The mint was selected by the Bank of Slovenia via an international public tender in which all twenty-two mints of the EU member states were invited to participate. Five mints submitted entries and, in line with the tender's requirements, the Bank of Slovenia commissioned the Mint of Finland to produce the 234 million Slovenian euro coins.

Ljubljana, 30 August 2006 ― Press release from the
Government PR and Media Office and the Bank of Slovenia

Stotin — A philosophical question

What's worse — not knowing something you should know, or thinking you know something but turn out to be mistaken?

A couple of days ago, a Slovenian friend and I got to talk about currency for some reason. To cut a short story even shorter, my friend didn't know what the subdivision of a tolar (Slovenia's currency) is called, whereas I was pretty sure it has a name similar to the former Austrian Groschen.

We ended up making a bet, though seconds later it occured to me that groszy is probably the Polish equivalent. Also, Slovene doesn't have the letter combination 'sz'. But a bet is a bet, and I left it up to my friend, after all being the one who should know, to prove me wrong.

And indeed I was. A Slovene tolar is divided into 100 stotinov. Nothing to do with Groschen. Fine, you win the bet, you get your fancy overpriced disgustingly sweet cocktail. But an interesting philosophical question remains (you won't get away that easily... I can still win morally...)

So... is it better to not know something you should know, or to think you know it but be proven wrong?

Anyway, whichever it is, I'll happily give a few thousand stotinov to pay my friend a sweet and colourful and hopefully tasty cocktail. The Sun is shining, life is beautiful — and it keeps make one wonder about kleine cocktails and grosse Groschen. What more do we need?!

Bjørn Clasen