Ivan Benak

pučki pjesnik · folk poet  ·  Sopje 1933. – Valpovo 2015.Sopje 1933 – Valpovo 2015

Radio burza

Kukuruz za prodaju

iz knjige Stihom kroz život (2010.)

Radio market

Maize for Sale

from the book Through Life in Verse (2010)

I do sad mi pomagala BURZA,za prodaju imam kukuruza.Osam tona stoje mi od lani,u vrećama dobro spakovani.Lijep kukuruz, ko dukat se žuti,od njeg' stoka neće da poludi.Njegova je kvaliteta snažna,on je dobar bez koštanog brašna.U zrnu ga stoka jako voli,šrotovanog jedu ga bez soli.Samljevenog sa dodatkom trave,duplo mlijeka dati će vam krave.Pilićima izvrsna je hrana,pet kila su za šezdeset dana.Taj kukuruz kad koke kljucaju,po dva jaja one dnevno daju.A praščići kada bi ga jeli,kao lopte bili bi debeli.Pa i guska kad bi ga probala,svoje perce za njega bi dala.Da je dobar, morate priznati,ovaj puta, jeftino ću dati.Kukuruz je u zrnu, bez klipa,kilu dajem samo za sto lipa.I još nešto ovdje valja znati,za istu ću cijenu šrotovati.Molim kupce ozbiljne i prave,neka mi se na telefon jave:6 5 2 osamsto dvadeset jedan,robu nudim cijeli ovaj tjedan.

Till now the Burza's always helped me through;I've maize for sale, and here it is for you.Eight tonnes of it I've had since last year's crop,all packed in sacks, and well packed, to the top.Fine maize, like golden ducats, to be had;your cattle, fed on this, will not go mad.Its quality is sturdy, strong and real:it's good without a bit of added bone meal.In grain, the cattle love it, that's for sure;and ground, they eat it without salt, just pure.Milled fine and mixed with grass, it's then so goodyour cows give twice the milk they ever would.For chicks it's excellent, the best of feed:five kilos in just sixty days, what speed!When hens peck at this maize, you'll see them laya pair of eggs apiece, each single day.And piglets, if they ate it, I'd be bound,would all grow fat as balls, and just as round.And if a goose should taste it, I declare,she'd give her feathers for it, then and there.That it is good, you'll all admit it's true;and this time I will sell it cheap to you.The maize is shelled, in grain, without the cob;a hundred lipa a kilo does the job.One more thing you should know, I'll tell you plain:I'll grind it at the same price as the grain.I ask for buyers, serious and sincere,to ring me on the telephone, right here:6 5 2 eight hundred twenty-one;the goods are offered till the week is done.

Valpovo, 15. 08. 2001.

Valpovo, August 15, 2001

Telefonski broj iz pjesme više nije u upotrebi.

The phone number in this poem is no longer in use.

Translator's note. A verse ad for "Radio burza", the swap-and-sell show on the local radio. It was written during the mad-cow (BSE) scare of 2000–01, when bone meal in cattle feed was blamed for the disease. A lipa is a hundredth of a kuna, so a hundred lipa is one kuna.