Kekčeva pesem

Two songs go by the name “Kekec’s song” in Slovenia, one for each of the films that made the mountain boy Kekec a household name, and they are so often run together that it is worth keeping them apart. “Kekčeva pesem” proper is the title song of Srečno, Kekec (“Good Luck, Kekec”, 1963). Its words are by the poet Kajetan Kovič, its music by Marjan Vodopivec, and it was sung by Martin Lumbar with the RTV Ljubljana orchestra. The singer sets out to sow good cheer among people — the sun in one hand, golden laughter in the other — and promises that whoever sings merry songs walks the world with light feet and gets the better of anyone who sets a trap for him. The bright brook, the swift wind and the white stars on the peaks go with him to the end of the wide world.

The older song belongs to the first film, Kekec (1951). “Kaj mi poje ptičica” (“What does the little bird sing to me”), usually remembered by its refrain dobra volja je najbolja — “good cheer is the best” — was written by Frane Milčinski - Ježek to music by Marjan Kozina and sung by Tomaž Tozon. The little bird sings the motto, the singer’s own footsteps echo it, the brook murmurs it over the stones: be merry every day, laugh, whistle songs, and you will catch happiness; the mopers and sourpusses can go their own way, and red cheeks, laughter and happiness are the only treasure worth having.

The two songs share their cheerfulness and their mountain furniture — bird, brook, wind, stars — and both have stayed in Slovenian childhood ever since, sung in kindergartens and on school trips. What they do not share is an author, a composer or a film, which is why each is printed here under its own title and its own credits.