Gorani Lyrics Translated by Denis Ferhatović

ZEJNEPA AROSE EARLY

Zejnepa arose early.
She arose before dawn.
She swept her vast quarters,
She baked hot loaves of bread,
She cobbled light footgear,
Then she began looking for her Kurto.
She went far in search of him.
There she met three men of Borje:
-- Hey men of Borje, hey men of Gora,
Haven’t you seen my Kurto?
-- Hey Zejnepa the fair, we’re astonished:
Haven’t you seen your Kurto?
There he is, your Kurto, over the hill,
He was eating some dry polenta,
He was smoking a bitter cigar,
He was waving a kerchief of many colors.

BRIDE, YOU TURKISH CARNATION
(played on the tupan, a women’s folk dance)

Bride, you Turkish carnation, I need to drink water.
If you need to drink, youngster, go and drink your fill.
Bride, you red carnation, I need to drink water.
If you need to drink, fool, drink your fill at the fountain.
Bride, you red carnation, give me to drink from your hands.
My hands are full you fool, of golden rings.
Bride, you red carnation, give me to drink from your carafe.
This silver carafe is for another, go and drink your fill.
Bride, you Turkish carnation, give me to drink from your mouth.
My mouth is full you fool, of sugar-coated lokum.

THERE HE GOES, GRANDDADDY A-HOPPING

There he goes, granddaddy a-hopping
Smiling with his gray beard.
Gladdened, he thinks he’ll get a girl.
A girl was dancing, she charmed him.
She even snatched his hat full of ducats.

“Break your neck, you disgusting old man
Or, granddaddy, go drown yourself.
A muddy river’s right for you, granddaddy,
A muddy river on St. George’s Day
A young man’s right for me, granddaddy,
A young man never married.”

СТАНАЛА РАНО ЗЕЈНЕПА

Станала рано зејнепа
станала уште пред саба,
измела равне дворои,
испекла вруће лебои,
напраила плитке опенке,
трнала куртета да тражи,
попут далеко отишла
и срела тројца Борјани:
-- Борјани, море Горани
да не видоте куртета?
-- Мори, пристала зејнепо,
зар не го виде куртета,
ено го, курто, зад ритче,
посен бакрдан јадеше,
љута џигара пијеше,
со светно светнарче мааше!

MANESTO TURSKI KARANFILJ
(na tupan se rupa, ženska igra)

Manesto turski karanfilj voda mi se pije.
Ako ti se pije mlado idi pa se napi.
Manesto cîrven karanfilj voda mi se pije.
Ako ti se pije ludo na češma se napi.
Manesto cîrven karanfilj so ruke napime.
Ruke mi se pîvne ludo so zlatne prsteni.
Manesto cîrven karanfilj so ibrik me napi.
Strebren ibrik drugomu je, idi pa se napi.
Manesto turski karanfilj so usta napime.
Usta mi je pîvna ludo so šećerni lokum.

ЕНО ИДЕ, ДЕДО ПОДИГРУЈЕ

Ено иде, дедо подигрује,
под бела се брада подсменује,
се радује дејка ће го земе.
Го играла, дејка, го мамила,
дур му зела капа со дукати.

Скрши шија, е старо старчиште,
иди, дедо, иди се удави,
за тебе је, дедо, м’тна река,
м’тна река ђурђеенска,
за мене је, дедо, младо момче,
младо момче неженето.

A note about the original author:

These are folk lyrics which means that they are anonymous. 

The originals printed in the Cyrillic alphabet are from Харун Хасани, Горанске народне песме [Harun Hasani, Gorani Folk Songs] (Prishtina, Jedinstvo, 1987), 161, 231. The original printed in the Roman alphabet is from Ramadan Redžeplari, Sedefna tambura: Goranske narodne pjesme [The Mother-of-Pearl Tambura: Gorani Folk Songs] (Prizren: Ramadan Redžeplari, 2008), 106. For more background on the tradition, including a summary in English (347-351), see Sadik Idrizi Aljabak, Jezik i stil narodne poezije Gore [The Language and Style of Folk Poetry of Gora] (Prizren: The Ministry of Arts, Science, and Technology, 2012), available freely online on Idrizi’s website under “Objavljene knjige” [Published Books]: https://sadik-idrizi-aljabak.blogspot.com/

Translator’s Note:

Gorani (goranski) is a small South Slavic linguistic variety spoken in Southwestern Kosovo and the surrounding areas in Albania and North Macedonia. It has a rich folk tradition. Like its larger, standardized cousin, the language now called BCMS (Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian), it can be written using either the Cyrillic or Roman alphabets. Gorani orthography has not been standardized, which means that different transcribers use different conventions for the same sound that is not recorded in BCMS. Hasani employs (as do several anthologists who use the Roman alphabet) the apostrophe while Redžeplari has î for the same schwa sound. Surrounding Balkan languages write that sound in various ways: ë in Albanian and ı in Turkish (Redžeplari, 15). Another issue is the capitalization of Zejnepa and Kurto in the first text. Since Hasani treats the two nouns not as personal names but as stock figures for the wife and the husband, he has them printed in the lower case. I treat them as names, but note here that I could equally have translated them as “wifey” and “hubby.” Sadik Idrizi etymologizes the names Zejnepa and Kurto as “doe” and “wolf”, and points out that the former stays at home, vulnerable like a female deer, while the latter moves abroad for work to support their family financially (Idrizi, 317-318). Finally, I should mention that Turkish in the second text does not have the present-day ethnic sense, but an older religious sense of Muslim.

These three lyrics spoke to me due to their interest in the position of many women in the patriarchal society. In miniature, they range over the three out of the four states of women in relation to heterosexual marriage: the wife in “Zejnepa Rose Early”; the new bride in “Bride, You Turkish Carnation”; and the unmarried woman (maiden, virgin) in “There He Goes, Granddady A-Hopping.” Zejnepa, manesta, dejka. We are only missing the widow. The trio that I selected to translate speaks of problems still plaguing our world. Women unproportionally are expected to perform domestic and emotional labor. If they are young, beautiful, and in public, men demand attention for them. Older, creepy men can and do make unwanted advances on younger women. These texts centering on women’s experiences and featuring their voices approach such issues with humor and verve.

About the translator:

Denis Ferhatović is an associate professor of English at Connecticut College (New London, CT, USA). His scholarly work appears in various journals and essay collections. His monograph Borrowed Objects and the Art of Poetry: Spolia in Old English Verse (2019) came out in paperback in the spring of 2024. His essays, reviews, poems, translations, and co-translations have been published in Rumba under Fire, Index on Censorship, The Riddle Ages, Iberian Connections, Turkoslavia, The Trinity Journal of Literary Translation, DoubleSpeak, Asymptote, Exchanges, Translations Beyond the Horizon, Ellipse Magazine, Reading in Translation, and Hopscotch Translation.

12 November 2025