Vasko Popa – Vrati mi moje krpice

Lyrics

Vrati mi moje krpice

Padni mi samo na pamet
Misli moje obraz da ti izgrebu
Iziđi samo preda me
Oči da mi zalaju na tebe
Samo otvori usta
Ćutanje moje da ti vilice razbije
Seti me samo na sebe
Sećanje moje da ti zemlju pod stopalima raskopa
Dotle je među nama došlo

1
Vrati mi moje krpice
Moje krpice od čistoga sna
Od svilenog osmeha od prugaste slutnje
Od moga čipkastoga tkiva
Moje krpice od tačkaste nade
Od žežene želje od šarenih pogleda
Od kože s moga lica
Vrati mi moje krpice
Vrati kad ti lepo kažem

2
Slušaj ti čudo
Skini tu maramu belu
Znamo se
S tobom se od malih nogu
Iz istog čanka srkalo
U istoj postelji spavalo
S tobom zlooki nožu
Po krivom svetu hodalo
S tobom gujo pod košuljom
Čuješ ti pretvorniče
Skini tu maramu belu
Šta da se lažemo

3
Neću te uprtiti na krkače
Neću te odneti kud mi kažeš
Neću ni zlatom potkovan
Ni u kola vetra na tri točka upregnut
Ni duginom uzdom zauzdan
Nemoj da me kupuješ
Neću ni s nogama u džepu
Ni udenut u iglu ni vezan u čvor
Ni sveden na običan prut
Nemoj da me plašiš
Neću ni pečen ni prepečen
Ni presan posoljen
Neću ni u snu
Nemoj da se zavaravaš
Ništa ne pali neću

4
Napolje iz moga zazidanog beskraja
Iz zvezdanog kola oko moga srca
Iz moga zalogaja sunca
Napolje iz smešnog mora moje krvi
Iz moje plime iz moje oseke
Napolje iz mog ćutanja na suvom
Napolje rekao sam napolje
Napolje iz moje žive provalije
Iz golog očinskog stabla u meni
Napolje dokle ću vikati napolje
Napolje iz moje glave što se rasprskava
Napolje samo napolje

5
Tebi dođu lutke
A ja ih u krvi svojoj kupam
U krpice svoje kože odevam
Ljuljaške im od svoje kose pravim
Kolica od svojih pršljenova
Krilatice od svojih obrva
Stvaram im leptire od svojih osmeha
I divljač od svojih zuba
Da love da vreme ubijaju
Kakva mi je pa to igra

6
Koren ti i krv i krunu
I sve u životu
Žedne ti slike u mozgu
I zar okca na vrhovima prstiju
I svaku svaku stopu
U tri kotla namćor vode
U tri peći znamen vatre
U tri jame bez imena i bez mleka
Hladan ti dah do grla
Do kamena pod levom sisom
Do ptice britve u tom kamenu
U tutu tutinu u leglo praznine
U gladne makaze početka i početka
U nebesku matericu znam li je ja

7
Šta je s mojim krpicama
Nećeš da ih vratiš nećeš
Spaliću ti ja obrve
Nećeš mi dovek biti nevidljiva
Pomešaću ti dan i noć u glavi
Lupićeš ti čelom o moja vratanca
Podrezaću ti raspevane nokte
Da mi ne crtaš školice po mozgu
Napujdaću ti magle iz kostiju
Da ti popiju kukute s jezika
Videćeš ti šta ću da ti radim
Seme ti i sok i sjaj
I tamu i tačku na kraju mog života
I sve na svetu

8
I ti hoćeš da se volimo
Možeš da me praviš od moga pepela
Od krša moga grohota
Od moje preostale dosade
Možeš lepotice
Možeš da me uhvatiš za pramen zaborava
Da mi grliš noć u praznoj košulji
Da mi ljubiš odjek
Pa ti ne umeš da se voliš

9
Beži čudo
I tragovi nam se ujedaju
Ujedaju za nama u prašini
Nismo mi jedno za drugo
Stamen hladan kroz tebe gledan
Kroz tebe prolazim s kraja na kraj
Ništa nema od igre
Kud smo krpice pomešali
Vrati mi ih šta ćeš s njima
Uludo ti na ramenima blede
Vrati mi ih u nigdinu svoju beži
Beži čudo od čuda
Gde su ti oči
I ovamo je čudo

10
Crn ti jezik crno podne crna nada
Sve ti crno samo jeza moja bela
Moj ti kurjak pod grlo
Oluja ti postelja
Strava moje uzglavlje
Široko ti nepočin-polje
Plameni ti zalogaji a vostani zubi
Pa ti žvaći izelice
Koliko ti drago žvaći
Nem ti vetar nema voda nemo cveće
Sve ti nemo samo škrgutanje moje glasno
Moj ti jastreb na srce
Manje te u majke groze

11
Izbrisao sam ti lice sa svoga lica
Zderao ti senku sa svoje senke
Izravnao bregove u tebi
Ravnice ti u bregove pretvorio
Zavadio ti godišnja doba
Odbio sve strane sveta od tebe
Savio svoj životni put oko tebe
Svoj neprohodni svoj nemogući
Pa ti sad gledaj da me sretneš

12
Dosta rečitoga smilja dosta slatkih trica
Ništa neću da čujem ništa da znam
Dosta dosta svega
Reći ću poslednje dosta
Napuniću usta zemljom
Stisnuću zube
Da presečem ispilobanjo
Da presečem jednom za svagda
Staću onakav kakav sam
Bez korena bez grane bez krune
Staću oslonjen na sebe
Na svoje čvoruge
Biću glogov kolac u tebi
Jedino što u tebi mogu biti
U tebi kvariigro u tebi bezveznice
Ne povratila se

13
Ne šali se čudo
Sakrilo si nož pod maramu
Prekoračilo crtu podmetnulo nogu
Pokvarilo si igru
Nebo da mi se prevrne
Sunce da mi glavu razbije
Krpice da mi se rasture
Ne šali se čudo s čudom
Vrati mi moje krpice
Ja ću tebi tvoje!

English Translation

Give Me Back My Thingies

Just pop into my head
My thoughts will scratch your cheek
Just step in front of me
My eyes will bark at you
Just open your mouth
My silence will break your jaw
Just remind me of yourself
My memory will dig up the ground beneath your feet
That’s how far we’ve come

1
Give me back my thingies
My thingies made of pure dreams
Of silky laughter, of striped foreboding
Of my lacy tissue
My thingies made of dotted hope
Of burning desire, of colorful glances
Of skin from my face
Give me back my thingies
Give them back, I’m asking you nicely!

2
Listen, you freak
Take that white scarf off
We’ve known each other
Ever since we were kids
Ate out of the same bowl
Slept in the same bed
With you evil-eyed knife
Walked around the wrong world
With you snake under my shirt
Do you hear me, you fake
Take that white scarf off
Why should we lie to each other

3
I wont give you a piggyback ride
I wont carry you where you want me to
I wont, not even shod with gold
Not even hitched to a wind’s three-wheel cart
Not even restrained with rainbow’s rein
Don’t you try to buy me
I won’t, not even with my feet up in my pocket
Not even threaded into a needle nor tied in a knot
Nor reduced to an ordinary rod
Don’t scare me
I wont, not even roasted nor over roasted
Not even raw salted
Not even in your dreams
Don’t fool yourself
Nothing works, I don’t want to

4
Get out of my walled up infinity
Out of the starry circle dance around my heart
Out of my morsel of sun
Get out of the funny sea of my blood
Out of my high tide out of my low tide
Get out of my silence in the dry
Get out, I said get out
Get out of my total ruin
Out of the naked fatherly tree within me
Get out, how much longer do I have to yell get out
Get out of my head that’s bursting
Get out, just get out!

5
Your monsters come to visit
And I bathe them in my blood
Dress them in rags of my skin
Make swings out of my hair for them
Toy prams from my vertebra
Gliders out of my eyebrows
I create butterflies for them from my smiles
And wild animals out of my teeth
To hunt to kill time
What kind of game is that anyway

6
Damn your roots and blood and crown
And everything in your life
Thirsty images in your brain
And the burning sensation on your fingertips
And every step you take
To three kettles of ill-natured water with it
To three furnaces of omen fire
To three pits with no name nor milk
Freezing breath up to your neck
Up to a stone under your left tit
Up to a razor bird in that stone
To hell,  to lair of emptiness with it
To starving scissors of beginnings and beginnings
To heavenly womb. Do I know it?!

7
What about my thingies
You won’t give them back, you won’t
I’ll burn your eyebrows
You won’t always be invisible to me
I’ll mix day and night in your head
You’ll hit your forehead against my back door
I’ll trim your singing nails
So you won’t draw hopscotch on my brain
I’ll incite the fogs out of your bones
To drink up the conium off your tongue
You’ll see what I’m gonna do to you
Damn your seed and juices and glitter
And darkness and the full stop at the end of my life
And everything in the world

8
And you want us to love each other
You can make me out of my ashes
Out of the ruins of my loud laughter
Out of my remaining dullness
You can, beauty
You can grab me by the lock of oblivion
Hug my night in an empty shirt
Kiss my echo
You do not know how to love

9
Go away freak
Even our traces are biting each other
Biting in the dust behind us
We are not meant for each other
Cold stone shows through you
Through you I’m passing from one end to the other
The game ain’t happening
Why did we ever mix our thingies
Give them back to me, what would you do with them
In vain they fade on your shoulders
Give them back to me, flee to your nothingness
Run freak from a freak
Can’t you see
There’s another freak here

10
Your tongue black, your noon black your hope is black
Your everything is black only my shudder is white
My wolf under your throat
Storm is your bed
Horror my pillow
May your sleeplessness be spaceless
Your morsels fiery and teeth waxy
So you chew, glutton
Chew all you want
Your wind – silent, silent water, silent flowers
Your everything is silent, only my teeth grinding is loud
My hawk at your heart
Less terror for your mother

11
I’ve erased your face from my face
I’ve torn your shadow off my shadow
Leveled the hills inside you
Made your seasons quarrel
Repulsed all corners of the world from you
Bended around you my life path
Impassable, impossible
Now you just try to run into me

12
Enough with the eloquent immortelles enough with the sweet nonsense
I don’t want to hear anything, to know anything
Enough, enough with all of it
I’ll say my final enough
I’ll fill my mouth with earth
I’ll clench my teeth
To cut off the skull drainage
To put an end to it once and for all
I’ll stand as I am
Rootless, branchless, crownless
I’ll stand leaning on myself
On my bumps
I’ll be a hawthorn stick inside you
The only thing I can be in you
In you party-pooper, in you stupid
May you never revive

13
Don’t fool around freak
You’ve hidden a knife under your scarf
Crossed the line, tripped me
Spoiled the game
Making my sky turn over
Making the sun break my head
Messing up my stuff
You should never freak a freak
Give me back my thingies
I’ll give you back yours!

5 thoughts on “Vasko Popa – Vrati mi moje krpice

  1. The person above (and bellow) is (clearly) not a poet but a professional translator (with an intention not to distort poetry while translating).
    Thank you for your comment and I would be very pleased if you’d share your own translations.

  2. Poems translated by person above are nice, but they look the same,like one line, borring in a way…Translating poems is much harded job then it looks.This translating doesn’t give drama,ups and downs so you can feel that person is not a poet herself…it looks like a game for her,but doesn’t strike me as a deep artistic achievement.Maybe I am to particular about the feel,because poetry is all my life…

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