Písnička pro tebe

to je ta písnička pro tebe
z autobusáku
mrazivé a modravé obrysy mraků
ptáků a paneláků

This is the first verse of a song by my new favorite Czech band, Mňága a Žd'orp. I liked it instantly, because when I heard it I recognized the words autobus and panelak. The meaning of autobus is self-explanatory; they're pretty much ubiquitous here. The panelak reference is what makes this song so incredibly evocative of the Czech Republic: a panelak is a block of flats, literally--they look like big gray lego blocks dropped all around every Czech city. Communist architecture at its grittiest.

So then I translated the rest of the verse, Latin-style with a dictionary:

this is a song for you
from the buses
from the cold and blueish outlines of the clouds
of the the birds and of the panelaky

And now I'm even more impressed. It reminds me of a Japanese poem, almost, in its extreme economy of words. Four lines, very little description, and yet the image it calls to mind is so perfect it takes my breath away. It's every Czech city, once you get outside the center of Prague: the buses, the clouds, the birds, and the big ugly gray buildings. This is what it's like in my town on a cloudy afternoon, the air misty with smog, and the cold all around. It's so beautiful.