Lyrics
Celotno besedilo pesmi »Stari Medo« z angleškim prevodom.
Brunda gunda, brunda gunda - meda polna skleda! Stari Medo - bistra glava: prazna skleda - Medo spava...
#Brunda gunda, brunda gunda - meda polna skleda! Če pa vidi polno skledo, rad vam pleše stari Medo!
#Brunda gunda, brunda gunda - meda polna skleda!
#English translation
Brunda gunda, brunda gunda — a bowl full of honey! Old Bear — a clever head: an empty bowl — and Bear goes to sleep… Brunda gunda, brunda gunda — a bowl full of honey! But if he sees a full bowl, Old Bear will gladly dance for you! Brunda gunda, brunda gunda — a bowl full of honey!
#Stari Medo at a glance
- Country of origin
- 🇸🇮 Slovenia
- Sung in
- Slovenian
- Words by
- Oton Župančič
- First known
- poem by Oton Župančič (1878–1949), from his collection "Mehurčki"
- Best for ages
- 2–7
- Mood
- playful, traditional
- Last updated
- 27 August 2026
Meaning and origin
This is a growly, good-humoured little song about a bear who knows exactly what he wants. Old Bear is described, drily, as a “clever head”: faced with an empty bowl, he sees no reason to stir and simply goes back to sleep — but let him spy a bowl brimming with honey, and he will happily get up and dance for you. It is a comic portrait of a creature ruled entirely by his stomach, and children recognise the logic at once.
Half the fun is in the refrain, brunda gunda, brunda gunda — a bowl full of honey!, a rumbling nonsense growl that begs to be sung in a deep, bearish voice. The words are by the Slovenian poet Oton Župančič (1878–1949), who included “Stari medo” in his children’s collection Mehurčki — one more of the animal poems that turn a familiar creature’s one great appetite into a joke a small child can share.
Common questions
- What is "Stari Medo" about?
- A honey-loving bear. Old Bear is a "clever head": when the bowl is empty, he just goes to sleep — but if he sees a bowl full of honey, he will gladly dance for you. The growly refrain "brunda gunda, brunda gunda — a bowl full of honey!" runs all the way through.
- What does "brunda gunda" mean?
- It is a nonsense growl — the sound a bear makes, turned into a refrain. It has no literal meaning; it is there to be rumbled and grumbled like a contented, hungry bear.
- Who wrote "Stari Medo"?
- The Slovenian poet Oton Župančič (1878–1949). "Stari medo" is one of the poems in his children's collection "Mehurčki", where it appears with exactly this "brunda gunda" refrain.
