O Zefire with video and translation

This was originally a qasida called Banet Su’adu by the Prophet’s poet, Ka’b ibn Zuheir, written to express his love for him.  It was translated into Bosnian and adapted by Džemaludin Latif-zade el-Bosnevi, one of Bosnia’s best living poets.  I’ll write more about him in a later post, Ako Bog Da.

This video is of Halid Bešlić, you can also find the mp3 of Aziz Alili singing it – that version is more well-known –  here (mouse over “donload mp3,” then “ilahije i kaside,” and select “ilahije download/1.”  Scroll down a bit to look for Aziz Alili).  The text here in italics is the chorus.  Yes I am aware that he sings it a bit differently in this video, but I thought it was the best version 🙂  Poor guy was in an accident last year; that’s why his face is like that.

O Zefire

Ti si Sunce koje blista s nebeskih visina;

Drugi resuli su zvijezde što sjaje iz tmina.

O, zefire, kad poletiš do medinskih strana,

Poselami onog što ga moja duša sanja!

Ti si kao cvijet nježan, kao Mjesec ponosan,

Ti si more od ićrama, najljepši ti si san.

Kao sedef sjajni školjkin kada se rastvori,

Takav je tvoj osmijeh blagi kada progovoriš

Takav miris ne imadu ni zafran ni mošus

Kao zemljica što pokriva tvoje tijelo I kosu

Oh Breeze

You are a sun that beams from the lofty heavens

The other messengers are stars that shine from that

O, breeze, when you fly through Medina

Greet the one whom my soul dreams of!

You are like a tender blossom, like the proud moon,

You are a sea of generosity, the most beautiful dream

Like a brilliant white seashell when it opens,

So is your gracious smile when you speak

Such a scent has neither saffron nor musk

Like the fragrance of your body and hair

Language Issues

Bosnian is not an easy language. It is a Slavic language, which means it has like a gazillion case endings, meaning I am spending more time memorizing declension tables than learning more vocabulary. Ok, well Bosnian has seven case endings (two are alike, though), but nouns are also classified by gender: masculine, neuter, and feminine. And those all decline differently. AND the plurals of each of those decline differently. Some are alike in some cases, but then I have to memorize which ones are alike and which are different. UGH! And then there are about forty or so prepositions, and they require different case endings for the nouns following them. The same preposition can mean different things depending on the case of the following noun, so it is very important to get them right!

I’m wondering if my textbook is teaching me the things I need to know. Check out this conversation from lesson one:

A: George je profesor, a Mary je profesorica. (George is a professor, and Mary is a professor.)

B: A njihov pas? (And their dog??)

A: Njihov pas nije profesor. Pas nije čovjek! Ali on jeste naš prijatelj. (Their dog is not a professor. The dog isn’t a human! But he is our friend.)

B: Jesu li pas i mačka prijatelji? (Are the dog and cat friends?)

A: I jesu i nisu. (They are and they aren’t)

And I had this sentence in my homework: Ne želim da kupiš psa crvene boje, već zelene boje. (I don’t want you to buy a red dog, but rather a green one.)

Hmm, evidently Bosnia not only has great music, but also multi-colored dogs that could be mistaken for professors!

But I am learning. My reading is improving. When I’m translating a song or reading an email or web page, I no longer have to look up every other word or figure out where the heck that case ending came from. Let’s see how the speaking goes!

Any takers on the questions in the last post?