Translation of the song Mi smo još uvek zemljaci artist Đorđe Balašević

Kada se noć i subota sretnu

When the night meets Saturday

Zakuva se takav žur na Menhetnu

Manhattan turns into such a party

Da bele rade iskaču iz saksije

That daisies jump out of flowerpots

Startuju tada opasne njuške

Dangerous types come out then

Protuve ženske, seke muške

Female good-for-nothings, male sisters

Al glavni provod ipak je lov na taksije

But the main fun is hunting for taxies

Majstor je stao ko da je znao

The driver pulled over, as if he knew

Sitna mu kiša farove tiho gasila

Droplets of drizzle extinguished his headlights

I učini mi se momenat pre tog

And just in the moment before I thought that

Da na visuljku prepoznah svetog Vasila

I recognized St. Basil1 on his car charm

Svi su taksisti uglavnom isti

All taxi drivers are mostly the same

Stari kontraši i nihilisti

Old naysayers and nihilists

Ili ćutljivci nemi od ružnih prizora

Or silent, lost for words from ugly scenes

Na poznat govor samo se trže

Familiar speech just made him wince

Neko već trubi da tera brže

Somebody's honked for him to hurry up

Proviri mišić iz ugla retrovizora

A small mouse peered from the corner of the rear-view mirror

Al svaka psovka mišolovka

But every swearword is a mousetrap2

I on je jedva čekao da se ulovimo

And he couldn't wait to get caught

Odgurnu volan ko supu vrelu

He pushed away the steering wheel like hot soup

Okrenu se lupi po čelu

Turned around and slapped his forehead

Zaglavljen metak i tišina

A bullet stuck in the barrel and silence

A srce tuče sedam osmina

But his heart is beating in seven eights3

Mi smo još juče bili zemljaci

Just yesterday we were countrymen

Poznam ja odmah naše oči iste

I can immediately tell that we have the same eyes

Šta se tu folirate da ste stranci

Why are you pretending that you're foreigners

Kada niste

When you're not?

Mi smo još juče bili tim snova

Just yesterday we were the dream team

A evo kako danas stoje stvari

And look how things are today

Ne smeta ništa što je zemlja nova

It doesn't matter that the country is new

Mi smo stari

We're still same old

Devedes` prve spakov`o kofer

In 19914 he packed his suitcase

Hortikultura, trenutno šofer

Horticulture, but currently a driver

`Ajmo do njega, po ženicu i svastiku

Let's go to his house, to fetch the wife and the sister-in-law

Tri čase kaže, rečicu prave

Three glasses, he says, start a river

Četiri bome, Njujork poplave

And four glasses flood New York

Ote se suza i zamuti mastiku?

A tear dropped and clouded his mastika5

I reče nam gorko ne d`o Bog nikom

And he said bitterly, don't wish it on anybody

Da `leb zaradi politikom, greh je to

To earn their bread with politics, that's a sin

Vidiš, moji sinčići Vangel i Blaže

You see, my little sons, Vangel and Blaže

dohvate globus, Strumicu traže

Reach for the globe, looking for Strumica6

I gde god prstić na Balkan stave

And wherever they put their little fingers on the Balkans

Pokriju barem tri države

They cover at least three countries

I tako krene cuga za cugom

And so it went, one drink after another

Proveja jutro kao sitno brašno

The morning blew by like fine flour

Javi se onaj stari žal za Jugom

Bringing along that old longing for the South7

Nista strašno

Nothing too bad

Čuvaj mi Bože bivše zemljake

God, look after my ex-countrymen

Moje su pesme njinih reči pune

My songs are full of their words

A tuge su nam tako podjednake

And our sorrows are so much the same

Da me zbune

That they confuse me