Oce dusa vanka tila
Marko Skugor · Other Songs - Marko Skugor
i od bure u granama bora
ludo srce naslidi od cace
mandolinu od starije brace
Ja san zivot ucija u kali
fala moji puno ste mi dali
dok se jidro gubi u daljini
cuvajte mi pismu, grdelini
Ref.
Oce dusa vanka tila
rasirila bila krila
oce krila u visinu
oce srce u daljinu
Oce dusa vanka tila
rasirila bila krila
ne bi krila nebu tila
da si jube moja bila
Ref. 2x
Oce dusa vanka tila
“Oće duša vanka tila” (“The Soul Wants Out of the Body”) is a love letter to place disguised as a song about the self. Marko Škugor traces his education to the sea, the bora wind in the pines, his father’s heart and the mandolin passed down by older brothers. The lyric’s Dalmatian vocabulary and coastal imagery make identity feel inherited and learned through landscape, family and music rather than declared in the abstract.
The title’s image of a soul wanting out of the body sounds dramatic, but the verses are grounded in gratitude. The singer says life was learned in the narrow streets and acknowledges what his family gave him. The sea is not a postcard backdrop; it is a teacher, a voice and a source of rhythm. The song’s emotional center is belonging: to a coast, a family, a dialect and a musical tradition that continues through generations.
Škugor is known for a powerful voice and Dalmatian repertoire, and this lyric gives that voice a deeply local frame. Specific independent reviews of the track are limited, so I won’t claim a consensus. “Oće duša vanka tila” feels less like a conventional pop ballad than a sung autobiography, with the self assembled from the people and places that shaped it. The soul may want to leave the body, but the song keeps returning to the shore that made it.