Oprostite, žao mi je means “Excuse me, I’m sorry” – the phrase for the moment you have bumped into somebody in a crowd.
That is exactly how the story starts: at a party you nudge someone who almost drops their glass. It is an old man, and you raise a toast to him – grandpa and a toast give you oprostite – and on his shirt sits a tiger drinking tea. Then you go to the corner with him to play chess: the board is round like an O, he drinks milk and wins every time. O, chess, milk and the “every time” give you žao mi je.
Two parts, two images – that is how you keep even longer sentences in the right order.