Besedilo (Lyrics)
Celotno besedilo pesmi »Marko skače« z angleškim prevodom.
Marko skače, Marko skače po zeleni trati, aj, aj, ajajaj, po zeleni trati.
#V roki nosi, v roki nosi sedem žoltih zlatih, aj, aj, ajajaj, sedem žoltih zlatih.
#English translation
Marko is leaping, Marko is leaping across the green meadow, aj, aj, ajajaj, across the green meadow. In his hand he carries, in his hand he carries seven yellow gold coins, aj, aj, ajajaj, seven yellow gold coins.
#Marko skače at a glance
- Country of origin
- 🇸🇮 Slovenia
- Sung in
- Slovenian
- Words by
- Traditional
- First known
- 19th century or earlier
- Best for ages
- 3–9
- Mood
- dancing, playful, traditional
- Last updated
- 24 July 2026
How to sing it
- Form a circle holding hands, with one child — Marko — in the middle.
- The circle walks or skips round during the sung lines; Marko leaps on the spot.
- On "aj, aj, ajajaj" everyone raises their joined hands high.
- At the end of the verse Marko chooses someone to swap places with, and the song starts again.
Meaning and origin
Slovenian children’s songs tend to be short, physical and built around a circle, and this is a clear example: two verses, a nonsense refrain, and a game attached to it that everyone learns at the same time as the words.
The picture is compact. Marko is leaping across a green meadow. In his hand he is carrying seven yellow gold coins. Nothing further is explained — the song does not say where he got them, where he is going, or why he is leaping rather than walking, and it does not appear to consider any of that important.
The Marko is generally understood to be Kraljevič Marko, Prince Marko, the figure who runs through South Slavic epic poetry from Slovenia to North Macedonia. In the epics he is a warrior of enormous strength and complicated loyalties; here he has been reduced to a boy jumping about in a field with a fistful of gold, which is roughly what folk tradition does to heroes once children get hold of them.
One detail dates the song. It says žoltih for “yellow”, where modern Slovenian would say rumenih — an older word that has largely dropped out of everyday speech but survives inside the song, protected by the melody. Folk songs are conservative in this way: the tune holds the words in place long after the language around them has moved on, so what children sing in the playground today is a small piece of preserved nineteenth-century Slovenian.
Common questions
- What does "Marko skače" mean?
- "Marko is leaping" or "Marko is jumping". The first verse has him leaping across a green meadow; the second has him carrying seven gold coins in his hand.
- Who is the Marko in the song?
- He is usually taken to be Kraljevič Marko — Prince Marko — the hero who appears throughout South Slavic epic poetry. The song itself gives no details, and for the children singing it he is simply whoever is standing in the middle of the circle.
- Why does "Marko skače" use the word "žoltih" instead of "rumenih"?
- "Žolt" is an old Slovenian word for yellow, now largely replaced in everyday speech by "rumen". Folk songs preserve older vocabulary long after it has left ordinary conversation, which is one of the ways linguists date them.
- Is Marko skače a dance?
- Yes — it belongs to the Slovenian children's folk-dance repertoire and is normally sung as a circle game rather than performed sitting still. The leaping in the lyric is meant to be done.
Sources
- Slovenian traditional; standard repertoire of Slovenian children's folk dance
