Before the Porta Macedonia

Taga sa jug

Edit: This is the translation of the first stanzas of T'ga sa jug, Longing for the South

It is dark here, dark surrounds me,

Dark for covers all the earth,

Here are frost and snow and ashes,

Blizzards and harsh winds abound,

Fogs all around, the earth is ice,

And in the breast are cold, dark thoughts.

No, I cannot stay here, no;

I cannot upon this frosts.

Give me wings and I will don them;

I will fly to our own shores,

Go once more to our own places,

Go to Ohrid and to Struga.

There the sunrise warms the soul,

The sun gets bright in mountain woods:

Younder gifts in great profusion

Richly spread by nature's power.

See the clear lake stretching white-

Or bluely darkened by the wind,

Look you at the plains or mountains:

Beauty' everywhere divine.

To pipe there to my heart's content!

Ah! let the sun set, let me die.

(Konstantin Miladinov (1830-1862))

The Balkan born singer Alexander Veljanov tends to be a little private about the details of his life, but he seems to have been visiting with Macedonian relations quite regularily as long as he went to school. These visits ceased altogether with the onset of the Balkan War; an alienation which lasted until the turn of the century, when Mr. Veljanov felt an urge to present his wife and little daughter with some of his roots. This urge led to the artistically brillant album "Porta Macedonia" (2008) - where, ironically, he doesn't sing a single Macedonian word-  but before that he had articulated himself in his mother's tongue.

The above title is a very modernized Macedonian folk ballade, dealing with a Macedonian exile's homesickness, stuck in Russia and longing for home...for the South. It's on the album "Suck Success" by RunRunVanguard, a postpunk band for which Alexander Veljanov sang from 1987 till 1993. This album (1993) collided with the success  of Deine Lakaien; RunRunVanguard never managed a tour and disbanded the same year. Personally, I think it rather sad, with him being a good singer and me a little post-punk at heart ... but then, we all grow up sooner or later (with the possible exception of my border collie ;-))

Blag Zhivot

This title is from the GEMA-banned "The Sweet Life". Same story as with the song "In my Room" stored under the labels "Lieblingstitel, Veljanov" in this blog- it was on youtube but got banned. The picture I used is from a foto-shooting for the Porta Macedonia, though.
I do not own any rights to this at all and will delete it if asked.