Kad odem [English translation]

When I am gone

when the devil escorts me down the main street

and when the moon covers my trail

don't grieve, because once a small dumb nightingale

flew to everybody's threshold.

When I am gone

when the wind starts mumbling the winter Lord's Prayer

and when the winds chases dead leaves into the trot

for punishment, they will even banish tamburitza players

because of the wrong song at the wrong moment.

Hey, be strong,

it is easiest to cry.

That is just Lord playing

autumn sonata for us.

I dreamed of a door in the pure gold,

I'm afraid to pass through but I will pass.

I know, you have a heart of gold, my old man,

don't spoil everything,

light only one candle

on St. John's day 1.

Don't keep for long the ashes of those days,

once I am gone, and I must go.

When I am gone

when you put the first chrysanthemum in the window

and when wild chestnuts crack

do not light a lantern on the porch in vain

when the mists abducted me one fall.

Hey, be strong,

it is easiest to cry.

That is just Lord playing

autumn sonata for us.

I dreamed of a door in the pure gold,

I'm afraid to pass through but I will pass.

I know, you have a heart of gold, my old man,

don't spoil everything,

light only one candle

on St. John's day.

Don't keep for long the ashes of those days,

once I am gone, and I must go.

1. St. John's day is celebrated by Orthodox Serbs on January 20th (according to Gregorian calendar). This holiday is often referred to in Balasevic's songs because this is "slava" of family Balasevic. Slava is a Serbian Orthodox Christian tradition of the ritual glorification of one's family's patron saint (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slava)