ROMAN AROUND SPIS … DIABETES, A SINGER, A HORSE AND A MISSION
We look at a world-renowned musician who is an unsung hero of the fight against diabetes
Roman Vitkovský – LOOK AROUND (Official Video) – YouTube
Roman Vitkovsky, who is quite famous nowadays, was a close friend for many years. He has had an incurable disease for decades …
The diminutive singer spent years as a house painter in Pittsburgh after moving to America hoping to make his musical dreams come true.
And finally he got a break into Hollywood two decades ago and his music appeared in some big movies. Now he gigs with a top Slovak band …
But he is in fact a real, good old fashioned travelling troubadour who is known to make journeys across the Spis region of this castellated and rolling country on the back of his lily-white horse to raise awareness about diabetes.
He slept round the campfire many nights on what sometimes seemed like an endless and lonely journey beneath the stars. Other nights farmers would allow him to sleep in the barn.
But almost every day, as he made his journey across the region, he would stop to perform at roadside bars and the Slovak equivalent of Slovak village halls and town squares.
A short film was made of his heart-felt journey for fellow victims of the disease which blights the lives of millions across the globe…
But Roman’s efforts went largely unnoticed.
Roman, in his 50s, spent lockdown in his isolated ranch-like home 50km from the tiny mountainside city, Poprad, where Andrea and I were living in splendid isolation ourselves..
He recorded this song on the spur of the moment on his phone… it is about coronavirus, it’s about isolation, it is about hope and all the other emotions we are going through. And it is about hope.
Here are the lyrics in both Slovak and English
Look Around
look around and see, what we become today
it could be brand new start, it could be all the end
the world we use to know, is falling all a part
everything has changed, every town is down
but I know god will help me
he all carry my through this days
I know he wont forsake me
so I’m praying for my brothers and sisters all out there
look around and see, where we have gone so wrong
that plague is coming down, like many times before
like many times before, old wind was blowing dust
i’m praying to the lord,this time we ll make it right.
SLOVAK LYRICS
volny preklad textu:
Pozri sa okolo seba
k comu sme dospely
moze to byt novy zaciatok
alebo koniec vsetkeho
svet ktory sme poznali
sa cely rozpada
vsetko sa zmenilo
vsetky mesta su uzavrete
ref:
viem ze boh mi pomoze
prejst cez toto vsetko
viem ze na mna nezabudne
tak sa modlim za vsetkych bratov a sestry tam vonku
pozri sa okolo seba
kde sme spravili chyby
pliaga sa na nas vali
ako vela krat predtym
ako vela krat predtym
uz vietor vanul prach
tak sa modlim k bohu
aby sme to cele napravili