Besedilo (Lyrics)
Celotno besedilo pesmi »En hud pesjan je živel« z angleškim prevodom.
En hud pesjan je živel, se futral je z ljudmi, z njih žup'co si je kuhal, obral jih do kosti.
#Enkrat pa en'ga najde, ga hoče v lonec dat', preveč je čudno dišal, preveč je bil kosmat.
#Kdo bil je ta kosmatež, lahko ugane vsak. Dihur je bil, kajneda! Narobe, bil je vrag!
#Pesjan čez kotel padu, pa s kropom se polil, ga vrag je brž obglodal, pa župco vso popil.
#Uči nas tale štor'ja, da kjer sta vraga dva, da tisti zmerom zmaga, k' 'ma več pesjanskega.
#English translation
A fierce ogre once lived, he fed himself on people, cooked soup out of them, picked them clean to the bone. But once he catches one he means to put in the pot — it smelled far too strange, it was far too hairy. Who was this hairy thing? Anyone can guess. A polecat, surely? — No! It was the Devil! The ogre fell over the cauldron, scalded himself with boiling water; the Devil quickly gnawed him up, and drank up all the soup. This little story teaches us that where there are two fiends, the one always wins who has more of the beast in him.
#En hud pesjan je živel at a glance
- Country of origin
- 🇸🇮 Slovenia
- Sung in
- Slovenian
- Words by
- Janez Bitenc
- First known
- credited to Janez Bitenc
- Best for ages
- 2–7
- Mood
- playful, traditional
- Last updated
- 25 July 2026
Meaning and origin
This is one of the odder corners of the Slovenian nursery — a darkly comic song in the old tradition of grisly tales told for laughs. A fierce ogre lives by eating people, cooking soup from them and picking them to the bone, until the day he catches something to cook that smells too strange and looks too hairy. The punchline of the middle verse is that his intended dinner is not a polecat, as you might guess, but the Devil himself — and the tables turn at once: the ogre topples into his own boiling cauldron, and the Devil gnaws him up and drinks the soup.
For all its cannibals and cauldrons, it plays as cartoonish comedy: the villain is out-monstered and served exactly what he had coming, and the whole thing ends on a mock-solemn moral — where two fiends meet, the beastlier one always wins. It is credited to Janez Bitenc, the great Slovenian writer of children’s songs (we have kept that attribution as our source gives it), and it shows the sly, unsqueamish humour that older children’s songs so often carried, long before nurseries were expected to be entirely gentle.
Common questions
- What is "En hud pesjan je živel" about?
- A comic tale of poetic justice. A fierce ogre lives by eating people — cooking soup from them and picking them to the bone. One day he catches a strange, hairy creature to cook, but it turns out to be the Devil; the ogre tumbles into his own cauldron of boiling water, and the Devil gobbles him up and drinks all the soup. The mock-moral: where two fiends meet, the beastlier one always wins.
- Is "En hud pesjan je živel" too scary for children?
- It is grisly on paper, but plays as broad, cartoonish comedy — an ogre out-monstered by the Devil and served his just deserts. Like many old comic tales, the horror is exaggerated for laughs, and the villain, not any innocent, comes to a sticky end.
- Who wrote "En hud pesjan je živel"?
- It is credited to Janez Bitenc, the prolific Slovenian composer of children's songs. We have kept that attribution as given in our source.
