EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 25 Plural 150 / 600
with sounds of grain and tall grass. Using žito corn, grain in plural is unusual: it’s here
forced to make the corresponding verb plural, so it can rhyme with the plural of
šuma forest.
The noun misao (misl-) f thought is one of feminine nouns not ending in -a, and
maybe the only one ending in -o. Note the verb misliti think is clearly related to this
noun. The verb njihati (njiše) means rock, sway.
In the last verse, both nouns (misli and šume) could be in either N or A – these forms
coincide in plural. So it falls back to the word order (the same as in English) to
understand what sways what.
The following verses have some weird features which are rare in speech. The form
ptica is genitive plural – it looks the same as N in writing for this noun – a case which
will be introduced later: normally, it would be let ptica flight of birds, but the word
order noun-noun-in-G is inverted here, which is almost never done in speech and
normal writing:
Ptica G let N šara svod A
Flight of birds scrawls the vault
pršti pjev N u jasni vedri dan A singing frizzles on a bright clear day prštati
jasni dan N , vedri smijeh N clear day, cheerful laughter
vedar čovjek N nikad nije sam N a cheerful man is never alone
The verbs šarati scribble, scrawl and prštati (pršti) sputter; fizzle, sizzle are not really
common. The construction u jasni vedri dan uses u¨ + A because it’s about time
(recall u srijedu etc.). The adjective jasan (jasn-) is precisely clear (and then
obvious), while vedar (vedr-) means without clouds (and then cheerful), but this word
play is impossible to translate to English.
The following verses start with maštom – it’s the word mašta imagination in a case
which is yet not introduced (the instrumental case):
Maštom I takneš
With imagination, you touch
taknuti
svaku travku A , cvijet A each blade of grass, each flower
tu si velik N ti N , i tvoj N je svijet N you’re big here, and the world is yours
Onda mir N , samo mir N
Then peace, only peace
rijeka N , šuma N , plavi svod N i ti N the river, the forest, the blue vault and you
(Drago Britvić)
Observe the inversions velik... ti and tvoj... svijet, to make it rhyme with cvijet
flower.
The verb taknuti (takne) touch is essentially a perfective verb, but it’s nevertheless
used here in the present tense (poetry...).
You can find various performances on YouTube; check this performance on A
strana.
This song launched the career of Vice Vukov, one of the most important Croatian