LEVSTIK AWARD
The Levstik Award for Lifetime Achievements in Children’s Literature (Writing)
Kajetan Kovič
10/21/1931 ✝ 11/7/2014
Kajetan Kovič is the poet and writer whose texts have marked many generations. The poet Boris A. Novak has termed Kovič’s verse ‘naturally elegant and elegantly natural’. Today’s adults were once the children who grew up in the playful, imaginary world of Purry the Puss (Maček Muri) and his feline friends, in the bear universe of Piki Jakob, and with many others. Those grown-ups now read the very same poems, picture-books, and stories to their own children and grandchildren – all the while enjoying the texts themselves.
Those with gold or silver backs
May no longer chit and chat
Go to bed, you drowsy cat.
Now the gold sun goes to bed,
Dreams of white rise up instead.
Dreams are cushions lined with silk,
Bowls of honey and of milk.
When sweet dreams upon them call
Into sleep white cats will fall
Followed by all kitties black
Those with gold or silver backs.
