These two early works of the author both feature a characteristic trait of Nikolić’s poetic style – informal and trivial situations leading to philosophical and metaphysical reflections on the human condition and human values.

Both ‘Magija Zvuka / Magie des Klanges’ [The Magic of Sound], which is dedicated to the author’s father, who was a musician, and ‘Dosti Khatinendar / Gost Niotkuda’ [A Guest from Nowhere] convey the cultural intimacy of the Romani home in the mahala, where the everyday life of the visible transcends to a spiritual universe ruled by supernatural powers (as in ‘A Guest from Nowhere’) or by beauty and hope (as in ‘The Magic of Sound’).

The poems were also published in Jovan Nikolić’s 1982 collection Gost Niotkuda / Dosti khatinendar: Pesme (Vršac/Vîrset: Biblioteka Kov). The writer provided the present versions in 2017. The translations into Romani are by Rajko Djurić.