XTRSLABA Voice from the Past
Simon Jenko returns through an address and a poetry recital.
About the film
Simon Jenko returns through an address and a poetry recital. This short film was shaped with AI video tools, editing and sound.
The historical figures are real. The scenes and encounters are fictional interpretations, not documentary evidence.
- Duration
- 2 min 39 s
- Published on YouTube
- Creator
- Nik Bogataj
- Spoken language
- Slovenian
Spoken in Slovenian. An English translation of the dialogue is available below.
English transcript
An English translation of the film’s Slovenian dialogue. Minor speech repetitions have been omitted.
Dear students, it is with great joy and honour that I address you today: young hearts following the path of knowledge, imagination and national awareness.
My life was woven from words, poems and love for my homeland. I was born into a simple life, among the green hills around Kranj, where I first felt the beauty of the Slovenian language. I wrote because I believed that every thought, every verse, had the power to change the world — if not the whole world, then at least a person's heart.
My dear young friends, I want to encourage you never to stop dreaming, thinking for yourselves and speaking from the heart. Slovenian, our language, is alive and powerful precisely because you use it anew every day. Cherish it. Learn it. Write and read in it, for the heart of a nation beats within it.
Do not be afraid of questions. Do not be afraid of different ideas. But always be honest, courageous and respectful: towards other people, towards knowledge and towards yourselves. If today I can be only a song in the wind, let that song remind you that each of you is an important voice in the chorus of the future. May curiosity and kindness accompany you.
Here is one of my poems, which you probably already know: On the Sora Plain.
Greetings to you, Sora Plain, where my ancestors lie in their graves; where my cradle once stood, and where the house of my birth still stands today.
The eye can still see Triglav's high, snowy head in the blue distance. The thundering Sava still murmurs in its riverbed, washing the rocks as it did in years gone by.
Do you still know me, Sora Plain? We have not seen each other for so long. My thoughts and face have changed since distance and time parted us.