Gibonni – Libar


U libar svojih dugova
Upiši mene
Jer odavno te kupujem
S onim što si htjela čut’

Od straha da ne potone
Tvoja ljubav za mene
Kao pčela u žlici čaja dok drži dah
Ja nemam razloga za strah

Dajem ti verse i note
Sve moje šarene perle na dar
Još te mogu pjesmom kupiti
Lukavo i slatkorječivo
Još uvijek mogu ti podvaliti ljubav

I sve ću ti obećati
Baš sve što hoćeš
Moju kožu, moju kost
I lice koje poželiš

Od straha da ne potone
Tvoja ljubav za mene
Kao pčela u žlici čaja dok drži dah
Ja nemam razloga za strah

Dajem ti verse i note
Sve moje šarene perle na dar
Još te mogu pjesmom kupiti
Lukavo i slatkorječivo
Još uvijek mogu ti podvaliti ljubav
Ljubav…

Dajem ti verse i note
Sve moje šarene perle na dar
Još te mogu pjesmom kupiti
Lukavo i slatkorječivo
Još uvijek mogu ti podvaliti ljubav

Još uvijek mogu…
Još uvijek mogu ti podvaliti ljubav
Ljubav…

Album_Gibonni - Mirakul

English Translation

The Book

In the book of your debts
inscribe me
Because since long ago, I’ve been bribing you
with what you want to hear

Scared that it will sink
your love for me
like a bee in a spoon of tea, while holding its breath
I have no reasons to fear
I’m giving you verses and notes
All my colorful pearls as a gift
I can still reach you with a song
Cunningly and with sweet-talk
I can still trick you into love

and I will promise you anything
literally everything you want
my skin, my bone
and a face you wish for

Scared that it will sink
your love for me
like a bee in a spoon of tea, while holding its breath
I have no reasons to fear

I’m giving you verses and notes
All my colorful pearls as a gift
I can still reach you with a song
Cunningly and with sweet-talk
I can still trick you into love
Love…

I’m giving you verses and notes
All my colorful pearls as a gift
I can still reach you with a song
Cunningly and with sweet-talk
I can still trick you into love

I still can…
I can still trick you into love
Love…

21 thoughts on “Gibonni – Libar

  1. Let me try. It is always hard to transfer the emotion behind an idiom, but I will try.

    In the ledger of your debts,
    Sign my name.
    ‘Cus I’ve been buying you for a while,
    With that which you want to hear.

    From the fear for it sink,
    The love I feel for you,
    Like a bee, in a spoon of tea,
    That holds it’s breath:
    I have nothing to fret.

    REF:
    I give you my lyrics and my notes,
    All my colorful pearls as a gift.
    Still, I can buy you with a song,
    Cleverly and with a silver tongue,
    Still, I can cheat on selling you,
    My love.

    And I’ll promise everything,
    Every single thing you want.
    My skin and my bone,
    And any face you may wish.

    From the fear for it sink,
    The love I feel for you,
    Like a bee, in a spoon of tea,
    That holds it’s breath:
    I have nothing to fret.

    REF:

    Teh ma hi seva hilejda – I give you my lyrics and my notes,
    s’n a heja, s’n deja peji – All my colorful pearls as a gift.
    lej sen da ti veh s’n vejdela – Still, I can buy you with a song,
    jon di sejla vih s’n da – Cleverly and with a silver tongue,
    lej sen da ti veh s’n vej de la heya – Still, I can cheat on selling you, My love.

  2. The way I see the lyrics is like this. Although sometimes not the exact literal words, the meaning I think comes through better:
    In your book of debts, write down my name
    Since for a long while I’ve been buying you, with words you longed to hear, fearing that your love for me would disappear
    As a honeybee in a spoonful of tea, as long as I hold my breath, I have no reason to fear
    I gift you with lyrics and music; all my shimmering pearls I lay at your feet
    I can still buy you with my songs; shrewdly, with my honeyed words, I can still coax you into loving me
    And I will promise you everything
    Yes, everything you ever dreamed: my flesh, my bone, any face you’d ever wish, fearing that your love for me will disappear
    As a honeybee in a spoonful of tea, as long as I hold my breath, I have no reason to fear

  3. Deco, prevod je vrlo dobar, ali samo bi trebalo ispraviti ovaj deo: “Scared that it will sink your love for me”. Taj stih nastavlja se na prethodnu strofu – odavno je kupuje s onim sto je htjela cut, (i to) iz straha da ne potone njena ljubav za njega. Ovako ispada na engleskom da je odavno kupuje s onim sto je htjela cut iz straha da ce to (kupovanje) potopiti njenu ljubav za njega. Kada je subjekat ovako na kraju, red reci moze da se obrne u pesnicku formu, pa bi moglo ovako npr. (nista obavezujuce, samo sugestija 😀 ): “fearing (ili out of fear) that sunk shall be your love for me”. I mislim da je “scared” inace vise fizicki i fizioloski strah, nego emocionalni, mada mozda se varam, posto nisam Englez 🙂 Pozzz

  4. I am from Holland and i like this song very much.
    It is a great song.
    I sang this song in 2002 in Stolac.
    I was one of the contestors in a songcontest.

  5. Što se tiče prvog komentara.. moraš priznati da pesma jeste malo protivrečna ali inače je jedna od mojih omiljenih (ako ne i na prvom mestu).
    Stvarno si se zapetljao sa “Sve što poželiš” (iako tekst ustvari i glasi drugačije – pogledaj moj prevod) ali nema razloga da to prevodimo drugačije nego jednostavno “Everything you wish for”
    “you will have wished” je Future perfect
    for example, If it rains tomorrow, we will have worked in vain yesterday

    “Out of fear that…” je ok ali “Out of/From fearing”.. jednostavno ne dolazi u obzir. Zato sam se i opredelila za “scared”

    Podvaljivanje ljubavi ostaje na razmatranju 🙂

  6. Spring, hvala na čitanju i primedbama -uvek je korisno 🙂

    Da, da, najvažniji stih u pesmi :))) Podvaliti ljubav. Pa, meni, bar, s obzirom da je tekst poezija, iz celine je očigledno da je on ludo voli, pa ne želi da joj podvaljuje s nekim fejkiranjem ljubavi, nego je još uvek može navesti da ga voli svojoj (istinskom) ljubavlju. E, sad, njegova , a ne njena strana ljubavi je navedena u originalnom jeziku (svoju ljubav), pa iako trick you into love, fool you into love nosi slično značenje (mada bi neko mogao da izvuče iz toga onu negativnu konotaciju podvaljivanja), ta fraza ipak podrazumeva njenu stranu ljubavi -zato sam stavio: fool you with (my) love.

    “Sve što poželiš”…svršeni oblik, dakle nije sve što želiš..i to se odnosi na sve buduće momente željenja (u svršenom obliku). Ima li neko vreme u engleskom za ovako nešto?

    da, “out of fear”, a da li onda može posle toga “that…” ili..? Ja bih u stvari stavio: “Out of fearing that”, ali mi je rogobatno , pa bih preradio ipak u: “from fearing that…” -ovo je ključni stih koji opravdava timačenje onog podvaljivanja.

    S obzirom da pominje “verses” a ne “lines”, ja ipak mislim da je “poem”, ali to nije tako bitno.

    “as a gift mi je nekako prozaično, ipak je ovo poezija – “na dar” je naglašeno veoma u pesmi -baš je izdvojeno, i mislim da u prevodu treba da bude tako izdvojeno i nalašeno da bi zvučaklo poetski (nije rekao: dajem ti na poklon (dar) perle).

    Sve u svemu, mislim da je pesma divna i kad se malo udubi čovek u značenje stihova, nije ni malo naivna i zato sam se ja toliko raspisao, a najviše me nagnao prvi komentar u kome je autorka bila nepravedna prema pesniku (tekstopiscu) i njegovom romantičnom muškarcu :))) – i ništa nije razumela, eh.

  7. Hvala i tebi srećna nova godina!

    Prevod ti nije loš s tim da se ne bih se nužno složila sa “correction: “while trying not to lose breath” would better reflect the meaning of “dok drži dah” than “holding her breath”.”
    držati dah = hold one’s breath

    “iridescent” je interpretacija (doduše odlična), on zapravo kaže “colourful”
    “to be a gift” nije najsrećnije rešenje u engleskom
    “make you fall for me” – svaka čast.. nisam se toga dosetila a trebalo je.. Ali – ne with “the poem” nego “with a song”

    Što se tiče “podvaliti ljubav”.. o tome bi se dalo raspravljati.. prvo – šta je pisac hteo da kaže.. sem toga, idiom je “fool into” (fool someone into something)-to deceive someone or oneself into doing something.

    “you’ll have wished” ovde nije adekvatna konstrukcija

    “from fear” – bukvalan prevod (na eng. je out of fear)

  8. and also: I’d repalce “notes” with “tones”, since the word refers to musical notes (tonal letters).

  9. correction: “while trying not to lose breath” would better reflect the meaning of “dok drži dah” than “holding her breath”.

  10. … And he repeats that he’s not scared, as if these words have a power to make things right (but he’s scared, oh yes).

    This is my translation (my native tongue is Serbocroatian or Croatoserbian):

    Inscribe me in the Book of your debts
    ’Cause I’ve been buying you for a long while
    with what you wanted to hear –
    from fear that it ’ll sink, your love for me,
    like a bee in a cup of tea
    while holding her breath.
    I have no reasons to be scared.

    I’m giving you verses and notes
    all my iridescent pearls – to be a gift.
    I can still make you fall for me with the poem
    shrewdly and with flatter
    I still can fool you with love.

    And I will promise you anything
    Indeed, everything you want –
    my skin, my bone
    and whichever face you’ll have wished
    from fear that it ’ll sink, your love for me,
    like a bee in a cup of tea
    while holding her breath.
    I have no reasons to be scared.

    I’m giving you verses and notes
    all my iridescent pearls – to be a gift.
    I can still make you fall for me with the poem
    shrewdly and with flatter
    I still can fool you with love.

    I still can
    I still can fool you with love
    Love.

  11. I must defend men here lol

    The lyrics is a poem and it should not be literally understood.

    He loves her so much that he’s terrified that one day he might loose her love. He’s even prepared to fake love, , in order to preserve her love. He def. knows she is not stupid, he knows she’ll know that he’s making an extra effort, to even fake love if that’s necessary (it can also be a joyful game of showing how much you care).

    You see, poems, just as our emotions, are not black-and-white and they have several layers and counter-layers. As for the debts, she owes him as much as he owes her (that’s how it goes in love) so noone’s a debtor, and it doesn’t make a difference if it’s a book of debts (literal translation) or debtors 🙂

  12. Sorry but nobody can translate it because the part is in an imaginary “fairy” language 🙂

    On the other hand, the bee part..

    He will promise her anything because he is scared that she will stop loving him (that her love for him is like a bee which is about to die – it’s not like a bee can hold its breath in a cup of tea or maybe it can try but it would be of no use)

  13. What about the last part of the song;

    Teh ma hi seva hilejda
    s’n a heja, s’n deja peji
    lej sen da ti veh s’n vejdela
    jon di sejla vih s’n da
    lej sen da ti veh s’n vej de la heya

    Can anybody translate this?

    And don’t know if it’s just me, but i don’t get the metaphor of a bee holding its breath in a cup of tea at all..?

  14. Thank you so much Nera! 🙂

    I’ve translated the song four years ago (and especially struggled with the drowning bee) and would do it differently now too.. So, some changes made according to your suggestions!

    Though.. I wouldn’t translate “libar tvojih dugova” as “book of your debtors” because “debtor is an entity that owes a debt to someone else” and I understood that it’s a book of her debts (she owes to him not the other way around so that he would be on the list of her debtors).. but maybe I’m wrong?

  15. “the book of your debts” is not an expression used in English language. Debtors journal or Debtors list would be better. In order to keep the word “book” in the lyrics, “book of your debtors” instead “book of your debts” would perhaps be a better option.

    I suggest replacing “I am buying you” with “I have been buying you”. “I am buying” (Present Progressive) implies the action is taking place in the present only, while “I have been buying” (Present Perfect Progressive) suggests that the action started in the past and hasn’t finished yet, and puts the emphasis on the duration of the action (he has been buying her love for a long time).

    “like a bee in a cup of tea, while it holds its breath”
    I would replace “while holds its breath” with “holding its breath”. The meaning is the same, but the later option is truer to the English language.

    Saying all that, I understand this is a difficult translation, due to colloquialisms and dialect. So congrats on a job very well done!

  16. Before I had the translation, I loved the song!!!!!
    with the words, I don’t understand: “she should write him in the book of her debts, he is scared that it will sink her love for him but he’s got no reason to fear”??? Is her book so heavy? Why is it not on his debts if he’s not being true.
    Well, probably it means that he can tell her whatever he wants: he can still be sure of her love,meaning:we girls are ready (stupid?) to believe anything, no?
    and I have to ask myself what made me happy about the song.
    Because I’m just an innocent woman who only sees the light in a every human being and in men……and wonders always in the end how fast one can fall.
    I won’t give up looking for truth always + for RISING IN LOVE together, Silke

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