Public-Domain Poem by Branko Radičević

The opening of Branko Radičević's elegy commonly titled „Кад млидијах умрети“ makes an autumn landscape carry a speaker's awareness of mortality. Four short lines combine nineteenth-century poetic vocabulary, a contracted infinitive, unusual object marking, delayed negation, and interlocking rhyme. This page uses a public-domain text reproduced in a University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology examination booklet.

What Kind of Edition Is This?

The four lines below reproduce that booklet's reading text, including лисје, веће, зеленога, and видет. They are not claimed to be a diplomatic transcription of Radičević's manuscript. Other editions print an apostrophe in видет’, vary punctuation, or give the title as „Кад млидија умрети“. Those differences belong to editions; a quotation must name its witness instead of silently combining them.

Complete Stanza and Idiomatic Translation

The English translation joins lines 3–4 because Serbian postpones the negative predicate видет нећу until the end. A word-for-word sequence—“of-green more I never / see will-not”—would preserve order while obscuring syntax and emotional force.

Line 1: Лисје жути

Лисје is a poetic/older collective corresponding to contemporary neutral лишће “foliage, leaves.” Жути is not the adjective yellow here. It is the third-person singular present of imperfective жутети, “to become yellow.” The collective subject is grammatically singular:

English treats leaves as plural. Serbian collective лишће is neuter singular, so a finite predicate is singular: лишће жути, not лишће жуте.

The locative по дрвећу distributes the leaves across the trees. Дрвеће is another collective neuter singular. A literal along the trees misses the distributed visual scene; idiomatic English uses on the trees.

Line 2: From Process to State

The near repetition contains a precise shift:

• лисје жути — the foliage is turning yellow; жути is a verb;
• лисје жуто — yellow foliage; жуто is an agreeing adjective.

The poem turns an ongoing change into a visible state and then into downward motion. Пада is imperfective present, but the poetic present makes the scene unfold before the reader rather than reporting one completed fall.

Веће is the older/poetic form corresponding to modern већ “already.” It occurs in both opening lines and fills out the rhythm. Learners should recognize it in historical literature, not replace modern већ with веће in neutral conversation.

Lines 3–4: Ellipsis and Delayed Negation

The hardest phrase is зеленога ... видет нећу. Зеленога is a substantivized long adjective form: the understood leaf-mass noun is omitted. Its form is compatible with the older genitive under negation, a pattern much more visible in historical and poetic Serbian than in ordinary contemporary speech. The basic sense is “I will not see green foliage again.”

A modern prose paraphrase can avoid the historical syntax:

That close modern paraphrase restores the understood noun and replaces the historical genitive object with the accusative. A more interpretive version can make the seasonal implication explicit:

Neither sentence replaces the poem. The first stays close to its grammar, while the second adds the inference that the speaker will not survive until the next renewal. The original зеленога foregrounds the lost greenness before revealing the speaker's ја and final negative predicate.

Видет is a contracted infinitive of видети, marked (poetic/colloquial in limited contexts) rather than neutral written prose. Some editors print видет’ to show truncation explicitly. The selected witness prints видет without an apostrophe, so that is what the quotation preserves.

Poetic Word Order and Information Structure

Neutral future negation is нећу видети. The poem reverses it to видет нећу, pushes the predicate to the last line, and separates it from its object-like adjective зеленога. This is not random freedom:

1. зеленога introduces what will be lost;
2. више ја никада expands the loss into permanence and personal fate;
3. видет нећу releases the delayed negative conclusion.

The modern sentence is grammatical and emotionally clear, but it has none of the stanza's suspension. See poetic word order for how verse exploits delayed dependents without abandoning case and agreement.

Rhyme and Sound Structure

The end words interlock: дрвећу—нећу and пада—никада. The four lines therefore create an enclosing ABBA rhyme rather than four isolated statements. Repetition supplies another layer:

• лисје begins both landscape lines;
• веће returns in the same late position;
• жути—жуто changes category with one vowel;
• више—никада—нећу accumulates negation.

Ordinary Serbian spelling does not mark pitch accent or vowel length, and the poem here is printed without specialist marks. Metrical stress should not be confused with dictionary pitch accent. A reader may emphasize никада, but should not insert an invented accent sign into the quotation.

Emotional and Historical Register

This is (literary, nineteenth-century) Serbian. Autumn is not merely scenery: the leaves will become green again, but the speaker believes he will not live to see them. The first two lines remain impersonal; ја arrives only when natural recurrence is contrasted with personal finality.

That sentence is an interpretive paraphrase, not a quotation. It makes the temporal contrast explicit but removes the poem's image, rhyme, and delayed disclosure.

The forms лисје, веће, зеленога, видет should not be copied wholesale into neutral conversation. A contemporary poet may use them deliberately; a learner using them unmarked in an email would sound archaizing or theatrical.

Common Mistakes

Reading жути as a plural adjective

Modernizing inside an attributed quotation

Treating the line break as a full stop

Using the poetic contraction as neutral formal prose

Key Takeaways

• In лисје жути, жути is a verb; in лисје жуто, жуто is an adjective.
• Older веће corresponds to modern већ, while лисје corresponds to neutral лишће.
• Зеленога ... видет нећу combines ellipsis, older negative object marking, contraction, and delayed negation.
• The text is a named reading witness, not a diplomatic manuscript transcription.
• Modernization and interpretive paraphrase must be labeled outside quotation.

Reuse Exercises

1. Turn all four lines into two sentences of neutral contemporary prose. Preserve the shift from yellowing process to yellow state.
2. Restore the understood noun after зеленога, then explain why a modern editor might choose a different construction rather than merely changing the ending.
3. Keep the original vocabulary but reorder lines 3–4 into neutral syntax. Read both versions aloud and describe how postponing нећу changes the emotional release.