‘Dade, kin mange grastores’ / ‘Köp en häst, far!’ (lit. ‘Daddy, buy me a horse’) is one of the rather famous poems by Leksa Manush. It belongs to a series of children’s poetry and has been translated into Swedish. It was first published in Russian and Latvian as the title poem of two collections, Хочу лошадку (‘Khochu loshadku’; in Russian, 1973) and Gribu kumeliņu (in Latvian, 1977).

As far as we know, it was published in Romani under the title ‘Dade, kin man grastores’ for the first time in a Hungarian volume of Romani poetry for children, Cigány bölcsődal (lit. ‘Gypsy lullaby’; Budapest, 1980). The poem is also included in the Dictionary of Latvian Romani published in Riga (Manušs et al., 1997).

(Ilona Makhutina)

Source of text sample

Dimiter-Taikon, Angelina (ed.). 2009. Paramiči aj pa čačimos pe Romani šib kelderash 2. Stockholm: Skolverket.

Literature

Мануш, Лекса [Manush, Leksa]. 1973. Хочу лошадку. Москва: Детская литература. Khochu loshadku [I want a horse]. Moskva. [In Russian, translated from Romani by Emma Moškovskaja. Later, in 1977, translated into Latvian].

Manus, Leksza. 1980. Cigány bölcsődal [Romani Lullaby]. Cigány költők versei gyerekeknek. Budapest: Móra könyvkiadó.

Manušs, Leksa; Neiland, Jānis; Rudevič, Kārlis. 1997. Čigānu-latviešu-angļu un latviešu-čiganu vārdnīca. [Romani-Latvian-English and Latvian-Romani Dictionary] Rīga: Zvaigzne ABC.