Tribute to an Amazing Writer

Part 2 — As long as there is no war

Meliha Avdic
4 min readMay 28, 2022

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https://cnlive.ba/kultura/legendarni-djordje-balasevic-preminuo-u-68-godini/2021/

I wrote part one about ‘Life is a Sea’. In my view, one of the best songs ever written. I hope I did a good job with the translation.

There are so many songs to choose from, I had a hard time picking just one. But, a comment from a fellow writer helped me choose this one.

Alright, here we go trying to translate it:

Pijani momci prolaze — drunk boys are passing
Duz nase tihe ulice. — down our quiet streets
Oni u vojsku polaze, — they are going into the army
Prate ih tuzne curice, — being sent off by sad girls
Brinu ih slutnje sulude: — worried by insane forebodings;
Da rata ne bude. — that there is no war.

Ne mogu da me ne sete — they cannot but remind me
Suze na vrhu nosica, — tears on top of the nose
Devetsto-osamdesete, — 1980s
Ulice Brane Cosica — Brane Cosica street
I voza crnog k’o da s njim — and a train as black as if with it
Zauvek…

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Meliha Avdic

Born in Bosnia, grew up in the UK-another war child, yes. Passionate about people and the state of society. A bit of a maverick, apparently. www.meliha.uk