Thanks for posting these lyrics and they are sung around by many artists, but we can argue that they have been heavily edited over time. The version I posted here is the closer to the originally intended version (and probably original) according to our sources.

There are no major mistakes in your lyrics, but I would strongly suggest people singing what I posted up, as it has taken a while to come to those (original) lyrics which make more sense as a story anyway.

Best regards,

Mirza

Snijeg pade na behar, na voće
neka ljubi ko god koga hoće

Ako neće, nek’ se ne nameće
od nameta nema selameta

Da sam sretan, k’o što sam nesretan
pa da dodjem tebi u odaje

Da ti sjedim medju šiltetima
kao paša medju subašama

Da ti ljubim tvoja medna usta
medna usta ostala ti pusta

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Snow has fallen on blossoms, on fruits
let anyone loves who he/she wants

If he/she doesn’t, do not impose
by imposition, happiness cannot come

To be happy, as I am unhappy
to come to your rooms

to sit amongst your cushions
like a pasha between ?????

to kiss your lips of honey
(let) desolate become your honey lips!

the white keys are straight on the bottom, not curved, its old, but i dont know how old is it.

thank you !!!!

I would strongly disagree with your branding of pre-90s turbo-folk as ‘neo-folk’. It’s simply ridiculous in my view. What you are calling ‘neo-folk’ is simply the ‘Phase 1 of Turbo Folk’ as far as I am concerned. Today’s incarnation of Turbo Folk is a dying breed of music which I am hoping will not exist at all within next 5 years as it has received so many steroids into its cardiovascular system that its imploding from the internal pressure on its own arteries.

Regarding the accordion and Austro-Hungarian Empire, the idea there is that something similar to Yugoslavia and us singing socialist songs happened. One set of instrumentation becomes uncool and another is imported in heap loads. The result is that the new instrumentation takes over. As people require more accordions, the Saz makers run out of business and demand dwindles, leading to a lack of people who know how to make a Saz and smaller and smaller popularity of that instrument.

This happens all the time in modern days and can be called or considered as ‘peer pressure’. For example desktop PCs have been largely superseded by laptops as desktops are seen largely as uncool and not portable. Accordion is a ‘better’ instrument than Saz as it allows two part music to be played, high clarity soloing, more varied sound capabilities and more versatile in general.

I was not trying to say that Austro-Hungarian Empire imposed accordion upon Bosnia, but their coming to Bosnia inevitably meant that Saz was pushed out through economic and cultural trends, just like Yugoslavian songs were pushed onto Bosnia during Tito era (Sevdalinkas weren’t forbidden, but people didn’t sing them as much).

And as the last point, my article here wasn’t of a political kind, but of a cultural kind. The fact that politics often impacts on culture is something I cannot easily change about the world and it would be silly of me to try and amputate politics out of my articles just to try and make a more non-political argument, when politics has played a major role in it all. Nevertheless I think my mentioning of politics in this article has been minimal or as minimal as possible.

And also, regarding the way people speak in Bosnia it’s not quite true that people in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia all speak the same language as I can quite happily recognise people within Bosnia quite quickly even today. They speak the same language crudely speaking, but the dialects are more than recognisable. That plays an important part in understanding Sevdalinka heritage. Words like ‘pendzer’, ‘dunjaluk’ and ‘aman’ for example are not used by all the aforementioned countries’ peoples as widely in regular speak as well as in songs.

My up and coming article is going to be covering the ever-changing type of accompaniment used within Sevdalinka performances. It will not be mentioning politics in any way, shape or form (I think).

Your theory about “turbo folk conspiracy” is simply absurd. First, you confuse the so called “turbo folk” with “neo-folk”. TF did not even exist before nineties and it developed from the “neo-folk” music that appeared in the 1960s. It was connected with the massive immigration of Yugoslav workers to Germany where they were influenced by the music of the immigrants from Turkey and other countries. This is how many “oriental” elements transferred. “Neo-folk” was long neglected and ignored by the mainstream media in Yugoslavia as the communist cultural politics saw it as a deviation of culture, exactly like you do. Only in the eighties did it really emerge to the wider public scene, as one of the many consequences of the political and economic liberalisation after Tito’s death. Since the people of generally rural origin in Bosnia and Serbia liked that kind of music, publishing houses decided to tap into that market. Pop, rock and punk music also became more prominent in media, not because there was a conspiracy but because there was the scene with the audience ready to spend money.

I also don’t quite understand your idea of Austrian imposition of accordion. Those who brought the accordion obviously tried to play local songs with a new instrument. As a musician you should well understand how this happens. There is no politics in that.

To those who like Ahmed Karim don’t know: the people in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia all speak the same language (the grammar is the same, there are some lexical differences). So there is no way you can tell Bosniaks, Serbs or Croats living in Bosnia by the way they speak.

I hope that next time you write about sevdah, you will write more about music and less about politics.