By request, here’s a song by Croatian singer-songwriter Mia Dimšić, performing under her first name only.
This song features colloquial shortening of infinitives, e.g. nać instead of naći perf. find.
The singer consistently uses the standard stress scheme (e.g. pripadam I belong is stressed on the 1st syllable), since she’s from Osijek, a city in the ‘standard stress area’. For more on various pronunciations, check 01 Alphabet and Pronunciation.
The first verse contains a simple expression of fear, with a da-clause in the future tense. For more about expressing fear, check 69 Memories, Expectations and Fear.
The second verse contains an imperative (the Croatian verse doesn't contain me, but it's common in English) and the verb trebati need/should in the ‘inverse’ mode: who needs something is in DL (mi², DL of the 1st pers. pronoun), and what is needed (or not) is in N (vrač).
The pronoun nju is feminine, since it refers to sreća happiness, a feminine noun:
Bojiš se you are afraid
[dabojati se be afraid conjunction
srećuhappiness
neću naćI won't find]?
| You are afraid [I won't find happiness]? |
vjerujbelieve,
zafor
nju her (A, stressed form)
ne trebadon't need
mito me (DL)
vračsorcerer
| believe me, for it I don't need a sorcerer |
The next verses are simple; the expression svaki dan is a time phrase (check 39 For Days: Indefinite Periods):
Otvoreni open (m)
dlanpalm
| An open palm |
vedre bright (f, N-pl)
mislithoughts
svakieach, every (m)
danday
| happy thoughts every day |
dovest ćewill bring
je her (A)
| will bring it (lit ‘her’, refers to sreća) |
takav such (m)
jeis
mojmy (m)
planplan
| such is my plan |
The noun misao (misl-) f thought is an example of a feminine noun not in -a which doesn’t end in a consonant.
The next two verses contain two clauses. The first clause is a content clause; check 57 Knowing and Telling: Content and Noun Clauses.
ZnamI know
[da conjunction
nisamI’m not
istasame (f)
kaolike
tiyou (N) ]
| I know [I’m not the same as you] |
nemamI don’t have višemore, anymore [zaštowhy bježatirun away] | I don’t have [a reason to run away] anymore |
However, the second verse contains a clause which has no English counterpart, literally I don’t have [why to run]. Such clauses will be described soon.
The next verse is very simple. However, the verse after it contains the phrase po svom which here translates to as I wish. Actually, it means how the subject of the sentence wishes, since it contains DL of svoj, which is the reflexive possessive. For basic uses of svoj, check 19 Your, Ana’s: Possessives.
Oblakcloud
jeis
moj my (m)
domhome
| A cloud is my home |
oblikujemI'm shaping
ga him (A)
poaccording to
svomreflexive possessive (DL)
| I’m shaping it as I wish |
dosadno boring (n)
jeis
kretati semove
tlomground (I)
| it’s boring to move on the ground |
The last verse above is a statement where the verb kretati se² move in inf – together with the attached noun tlo ground – is the subject! Here English requires a ‘dummy pronoun’ it, but there are no ‘dummy pronouns’ in Croatian. Since a verb in inf is the subject, the adjective is in neuter singular, and the verb je² is in the 3rd person.
Finally, the noun tlo is in I, since we express "area" where the movement occurs: for more information, see 35 Tools and Means, With and Without.
In the next three verses, it’s always object before the verb (because of the rhyme) and the last object is in DL, as required by the verb pripadati belong.
Samoonly ovuthis (f, A) pjesmusong želimI want | I want only this song |
samoonly
ovaj this (masc. inan. A = N)
ritamrhythm
znamI know
| I know only this rhythm |
samoonly ovojthis (f, DL) ludojcrazy (f, DL) besmislicinonsense (DL) pripadamI belong | I belong only to this crazy nonsense |
The following verses are very simple:
Sveeverything jeis crnoblack (n) | Everything is black |
sveeverything
jeis
b | everything is white |
alibut životlife nijeisn’t sivgray (m) | but the life isn’t gray |
The next verses contain two time clauses:
Sveeverything
jeis
dobro good (n)
| Everything is fine |
[dokwhile siyou are zdravhealthy (m)] | [while you’re in good health] |
iand [dokwhile siyou are živalive (m)] | and [while you’re alive] |
The next verse contains another content clause, while the third verse is a personal opinion with DL; for more information, see 23 I’m Cold: Basic Impressions.
Znašyou know
li question particle
[zaštowhy
svyour (m) ]?
| Do you know [why the world isn’t yours yet]? |
svemueverything (DL) tražišyou're looking for oznakulabel, mark iand brojnumber | you are looking for a label and number for everything |
iand
svatkoeveryone
ti to you (DL)
jeis
lošbad (m)
| and you find everyone bad |
aand ne poznaješyou don't know gahim jošstill, not yet | and you don’t know him yet |
iand
svakog everyone (A)
svrstavašyou're classifying
uin
nekisome (masc. inan., A = N)
košbasket
| and you classify everyone in some basket |
The next verse contains a phrase blago meni, approximately lucky me:
Blagoriches
meni to me (DL, stressed form)
[štoconjunction
siyou are
takoso
ljutangry (m) ]
| Lucky me, you're so angry |
tothat
jeis
znaksign
[da conjunction
biramI'm choosing
dobargood (masc. inan., A = N)
putway, path]
| that is a sign [I’m choosing a good path] |
iand
[dokwhile
ti to you (DL)
smetabothers, disturbs
sjajshine]
| [while the shine disturbs you] |
znamI know
[da conjunction
ne vidišyou don't see
mito me (DL)
krajend]
| I know [you don't see my limits] |
iand [kamowhere to idemI'm going] zatotherefore, for that reason ne pitajdon't ask | therefore, don’t ask [where I’m going to] |

Hi Daniel, I really enjoyed this translation and explanation. I was wondering if you could do something similar for the song "zašto uvik pivan" by Tomislav Bralić.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
yes, I can do it. It's an Ikavian song, so it's a bit advanced stuff. I'll do in likely the next week. Stay tuned... lp
DeleteThank you. You should set up a way that readers can donate to you for all the work you put into this.
DeleteI don't need money - I rather need corrections, suggestions, questions how to improve this site :)
DeleteOk if thats the case I will let you know if I notice anything :)
ReplyDeleteHi Daniel. I thought of something that would be useful to help me and maybe others learn. I wanted to find Croatian TV shows with English subtitles to help me better understand when people speak Croatian. But it was very difficult to find.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could have a section with links to where we can find those shows or even create subtitles for certain shows?
Thanks.
I don't know if such "shows" exist at all. The market is very, very small. Maybe there are subtitles made unofficially for some things, but I don't know any at the moment.
DeleteThe best hope are some documentaries made not only for Croatian, but also for European audience, such as this one, about a matchmaker in Dalmatian outback. However, people in the movie speak the local dialect, not that far from the written standard, but it's actually Ikavian (not all forms are Ikavian, though):
Gangster of Love
I will try to compile a list of such movies, when I find more.