THE LIPPIZANER

A newspaper reports:
the Lippizaners collaborated
on a historical film.
A radio explains:
a millionaire had bought the Lippizaners,
the noble animals were quiet
throughout the journey over the Atlantic.
And a text book teaches:
the Lippizaners are graceful riding horses,
their origin is in the Karst, they are of supple hoof,
conceited trot, intelligent nature,
and obstinate fidelity.



But I have to add, my son,
that it isn\'t possible to fit these
restless animals into any set pattern:
it is good, when the day shines,
the Lippizaners are black foals.
And it is good, when the night reigns,
the Lippizaners are white mares,
but the best is,
when the day comes out of the night,
then the Lippizaners are the white and black buffoons,
the court fools of its Majesty,
Slovenian history.



Others have worshipped holy cows and dragons,
thousand-year-old turtles and winged lions,
unicorns, double-headed eagles and phoenixes,
but we\'ve chosen the most beautiful animal,
which proved to be excellent on battlefields, in circuses,
harnessed to princesses and the Golden Monstrance,
therefore the emperors of Vienna spoke
French with skilful diplomats,
Italian with charming actresses,
Spanish with the infinite God,
and German with uneducated servants:
but with the horses they talked Slovene.



Remember, my child, how mysteriously
nature and history are bound together,
and how different are the driving forces of the spirit
of each of the world\'s peoples.
You know well that ours is the land of contests and races.
You, thus, understand why the white horses
from Noah\'s ark found a refuge on our pure ground,
why they became our holy animal,
why they entered into the legend of history,
and why they bring the life pulse to our future.
They incessantly search for our promised land
and are becoming our spirit\'s passionate saddle.



I endlessly sit on a black and white, horse.
my beloved son,
like a Bedouin chief
I blend with my animal,
I\'ve been traveling on it all my life,
I sleep on it, and I dream on it,
and I\'ll die on it.
I learned all our prophesies
on the mysterious animal,
and this poem, too, I experienced
on its trembling back.



Nothing is darker than
clear speech,
and nothing more true than a poem
the intellect cannot seize,
heroes limp in the bright sun,
and sages stammer in the dark,
the buffoons, though, are changing into poets,
the winged Pegasi run faster and faster
above the caves of our old earth
jumping and pounding —
the impatient Slovenian animals
are still trying to awaken the legendary King Matjaz.



Those who don\'t know how to ride a horse,
should learn quickly
how to tame the fiery animal,
how to ride freely in a light saddle,
how to catch the harmony of the trot,
and above all to persist in the premonition,
for our horses came galloping from far away,
and they still have far to go:
motors tend to break down,
elephants eat too much,
our road is a long one,
and it is too far to walk.

Lipicanci

Lipicanci

Casnik poroca:
lipicanci so sodelovali
pri zgodovinskem filmu.
Radio razlaga:
Milijonar je kupil lipicance,
plemenite zivali so nemirne
ves cas poleta nad Atlantikom.
in ucna knjiga uci:
lipicanci so hvalezni jezdni konji.
Doma so s Krasa, proznega kopita,
gizdavega drnca, bistre cudi
in trmaste zvestobe.



In vendar ti dodajam, sinko,
da teh nemirnih zivali
ni mogoce spraviti v razvidne obrazce:
dobro je, kadar sije dan,
lipicanci so crna zrebeta.
in dobro je, kadar vlada noc,
lipicanci so bele kobile,
najbolje pa je,
kadar prihaja dan iz noci,
kajti lipicanci so belocrni burkezi,
dvomi šaljivci njenega velicanstva,
slovenske zgodovine.



Drugi so castili svete krave in zmaje,
tisocletne zelve in leve s perutmi,
samoroge, dvoglave orle in fenikse,
mi pa smo si izbrali najlepšo zival,
izkazala se je na bojišcih in v cirkusih.
prepeljevala je kraljicne in zlato monštranco,
zato so dunajski cesarji govorili
francosko s spretnimi diplomati,
italijansko z zalimi igralkami.
špansko z neskoncnim Bogom
in nemško z nešolanimi hlapci,
s konji pa so se pogovarjali slovensko.



Spomni se, otrok, kako skrivnostno
sta spojena narava in zgodovina sveta
in kako razlicna je vzmet duha
pri slehernem ljudstvu na zemlji.
Dobro veš, da smo zemlja tekem in dirk.
Zato tudi razumeš, zakaj so se beli konji
iz Noetove barke zatekli na naša cista tla,
zakaj so postali naša sveta zival,
zakaj so stopili v legendo zgodovine
in zakaj razburjajo našo prihodnost,
nenehoma nam išcejo obljubljeno dezelo
in postajajo zanosno sedlo našega duha.



Kar naprej sem na belocrnem konju.
mili moj sinko,
kakor poglavar beduinov
sem zrasel s svojo zivaljo.
vse zivljenje potujem na njej,
bojujem se na konju in molim na njem,
spim na konju in sanjam na konju
in umrl bom na konju,
vse naše prerokbe sem spoznal
na skrivnostni zivali,
in tudi to pesem sem dozivel
na njenem drhtecem hrbtu.



Nic temnejšega ni
od jasne govorice
in nic resnicnejšega ni od pesmi,
ki je razum ne more zapopasti,
junaki šepajo v svetlem soncu
in modrijani jecljajo v temi,
burkezi pa se spreminjajo v pesnike
krilati pegazi vedno hitreje dirjajo
nad votlinami naše stare zemlje
in poskakujejo in trkajo,
nestrpne slovenske zivali
še vedno budijo kralja Matjaza.



Kdor še ne zna zajezditi konja,
naj se cimprej nauci
ukrotiti iskro zival,
obdrzati se svobodno v lahkem sedlu
in uloviti ubrano mero drnca,
predvsem pa vztrajati v slutnji,
kajti naši konji so pridirjali od dalec
in so dalec namenjeni,
motorji radi odpovedo,
sloni prevec pojedo,
naša pot pa je dolga
in peš je predalec.