saints, parents, rulers, bishops and clergymen have the privilege of
cursing and that the person to whom the curse is addressed is bound to
undergo the consequences pronounced by the curser. There are several
instances in the Serbian heroic ballads by which it is proven that the
national Serbian bards, and indeed all the peasants who participated in
the composition of their epic poetry, believe that curses pronounced by
privileged persons always come true. Thus in the ballad _Uros and
Mrnjavcevici_ King Vukasin of Macedonia, angry with his son Marko
Kralyevich because the latter, when chosen for arbiter, said that the
imperial crown belonged to Carevic Uros and not to him (Vukasin),
exclaimed:
"O son Marko, may God smother thee!
Mayest thou have no tomb, nor progeny
May thy soul not leave thy body
Before thou hast served the Turkish emperor!"
While Marko's kingly father cursed him, Carevic Uros blesses him thus:
"O my Kum Marko, God second thee!
Thy face shine at divan
Thy sabre smother in duels!
May no one excel thee in heroism
Thy name be reverently remembered.
As long as Sun and Moon shine!"
And the bard finishes his poem with, "Whatever they said, it came true."
Another oral tradition tells us how a nobleman _Velimir Bogati_ (Velimir
the Rich) who once refused hospitality to Knez Lazar, the emperor of
Serbia (1389), was cursed by the noble prince and how Velimir's first
son indeed drowned himself in the river Lepenica, his second son fell
from his horse and died in consequence of the accident and how his
third, and now only son, was imprisoned by his father in one of the
remotest towers of his castle in order to avoid any danger of
experiencing the prince's curse. One day, however, Velimir Bogati
brought to his imprisoned son some grapes from his own vineyard, in
order that the poor young fellow should at least know what time of the
year it was, and lo! while the boy was eating the grapes a small viper
jumped out of the bunch and mortally bit him. The news of the sudden
death of the young nobleman spread rapidly amongst the neighboring
villages and fortified the peasants in their belief that one cannot
escape the curse.
Par extension a _kletva_ (curse) can be effective even if pronounced, as
in the above song, by other persons than those privileged.
Another saga narrates how a peasant greedily coveted and wished to
appropriate a corn field that belonged to his neighbour and, in order to
attain his evil end, he buried in the middle of that field his only son
whom he had previously taught what to say when interrogated. The judge
and the plaintiffs came with the defender to the spot and the
mischievous peasant in order to mystify those present, exclaimed: "O
black earth, speak of thy own free will, to whom dost thou rightly
belong?"
"I belong to thee," the voice from below was heard.
The lawful owner, hearing this, started aback. And the judge's verdict
appointed the field to belong to the covetous and wrong claimant. And
the parties dispersed in wonder.
Then the father began to dig the ground in order to disinter his son.
But--there was not the shadow of one! He called loudly and the child
answered the call but the voice from beneath the earth was ever fainter
and fainter. Finally the child turned to a mole.
Thus became, according to Serbian tradition, the first mole. (Edit.)]
[Footnote 3: Sir John Bowring, although a remarkable transversifier and
at times a true interpreter of popular songs of the Slavs, has taken too
much of that _licentia poetica_ in his rendering of this, one of the
most beautiful lyrics ever composed by Serbian peasant women. The reader
may judge for himself, when comparing Sir John Bowring's liberal
transversification with the following _verbatim_ translation (which he,
himself, felt absolutely indispensable to reproduce) what a great
injustice is inflicted upon the popular songs of any people by even the
most conscientious transversifier and how infinitely less untrue to the
original a rendering can be. (Edit.)
Of this little poem, which Goethe calls "wonderful," the following is an
almost literal translation:
Full of wine, white branches of the vine-trees
To white Buda's fortress white had clung them:
No! it was no vine-tree, white and pregnant!
No! it was a pair of faithful lovers,
From their early youth betrothed together.
Now they are compell'd to part untimely.
One address'd the other at their parting,
"Go! my soul! burst out and leave my bosom!
Thou wilt find a hedge-surrounded garden,
And a red-rose branch within the garden;
Pluck a rose from off the branch, and place it,
Place it on thy heart, within thy bosom;
Then behold!--ev'n as that rose is fading,
Fades my heart within thy heart thou loved one!"
And thus answer'd then the other lover:
"Thou, my soul! turn back a few short paces.
There thou wilt discern a verdant forest;
In it is a fount of crystal water;
In the fount there is a block of marble;
On the marble block a golden goblet;
In the goblet thou wilt find a snow-ball.
Love! take out that snow-ball from the goblet,
Lay it on thy heart within thy bosom;
See it melt--and as it melts, my lov'd one!
So my heart within thy heart is melting."
(S. J. B.)
]
[Footnote 4: This song has obviously been composed by a Serbian woman of
Mohammedan faith. A large percentage of Serbians in Bosnia, Hercegovina
and even Macedonia are still adhering to the Koran. Ali Bey surely must
have been a Serbian bey. (Edit.)]
[Footnote 5: Smilia, the _grapharium arenarium_, or "lovely love." Also
a woman's name. (S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 6: This song is sung at the close of the harvest, when all the
reapers are gathered together. Half as many reeds as the number of
persons present are so bound that no one can distinguish the two ends
which belong to the same reed. Each man takes one end of the reeds on
one side, each of the women takes one end at the other. The withes that
bind the reeds are severed, and the couples that hold the same reed kiss
one another. (S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 7: _Kalpak_, the fur cap of the Serbians. (S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 8: This is one of the songs sung at the breaking up of the
company, addressed to the giver of the festival. (S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 9: _Musko cedo_ (male child). The male sex is in Serbia, as
elsewhere, deemed entitled to more care and attention than the other.
(S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 10: A handkerchief embroidered and given by a girl to a boy is
considered in Jugoslavia as a symbol of love and faith. (Edit.)]
[Footnote 11: As unfortunately Serbian parents often, very often, select
the husband of their marriageable daughter, the poor girl, unless
disobedient and rebellious, meekly accedes to the choice even if her
bridegroom should be an old man. This is obviously a remnant of Turkish
dominion in Serbia. (Edit.)]
[Footnote 12: _Zvezda_, star, is of the feminine gender. (S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 13: Sun is feminine in Serbian. (S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 14: The leech, _Sanguisuga_; but in Serbian there is no
disagreeable association with the word. It is the name usually employed
to describe the beauty of the eyebrows, as swallows' wings are the
simile used for eyelashes. (S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 15: _Visnja_, the universal Slavonian name of the Vistula
cherry-tree. The _Cerasum apronianum_ of Linne. (S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 16: The _Vila_ nearly corresponds to the _Peri_ of the
Persians, and the _Woela_ of the Scandinavians. (S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 17: _Radisa_ is the name of a man. _Radovanje_--joy. (S. J.
B.)]
[Footnote 18: _Lepota_ is the Serbian word for beauty. (S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 19: I shall be accused of having _decorated_ this. The
translation is more free than I have generally given; but in order to
show how little I have deviated from the thought of the original, I give
the conclusion. (S. J. B.)
"Ako bi te u pjesmu pjevala,
Pjesma ide od usta do usta,
Pa ce doci u pogana usta;
Ako bi te u rukave vezla,
Rukav ce se odma izderati,
Pa ce tvoje ime poginuti;
Ako bi te u knjigu pisala
Knjiga ide od ruke do ruke,
Pa ce doci u pogane ruke."
Vuk i. p. 200
]
[Footnote 20: The popular national dance of the Serbians. (S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 21: _Bosiljak_, the _Ocimum basilicum_ of Linne (S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 22: As the Serbians have had during the long Ottoman rule to
attend to much sterner duties than that of cultivating literature and
art, and, as the greater part of the population (sixty per cent at
least) are even to this day completely illiterate, ability to read and
write is still considered an 'art' with the peasantry. (Edit.)]
[Footnote 23: _Kaloper_, balsamita vulgaris of Linne. (S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 24: _Vila_ (pronounced veelah) is with the Serbians a female
deity (Muse or Grace) of incomparable beauty and tenderness. But she can
be very hostile to mortals. (Cf. note 16. Edit.)]
[Footnote 25: The cuckoo (_Kukavica_), according to Serbian tradition,
was a maiden who mourned so unceasingly for a dead brother, that she was
changed into a bird, and thence continues without rest her melancholy
note. A Serbian girl who has lost a brother never hears a cuckoo without
shedding tears.--"I a poor cuckoo," is equivalent to "woe is me!" (S. J.
B.)]
[Footnote 26: _Ban_ is obviously a corrupt form of the Polish or Cech or
Ruthenian title _Pan_, meaning "Mr." or, in direct address, "Sir." To
this day that word has been conserved only by those Serbians who have
lived in the Austro-Hungarian territory called Croatia, and is applied
as a title to their political chief. (Edit.)]
[Footnote 27: Lado is the vocative of _Lada_, the goddess of love, in
the old Slavonian mythology. _Lado!_ is a melancholy interjection in
Serbian, whereas _Lele!_ the vocative of Lela, the god of love, has
frequently a cheerful association. _Polela_ (after love) the goddess of
marriage, is also sometimes apostrophised. Talvj remarks, that _Ljad_,
in Russian, signifies misfortune. In common parlance, _Lele mene_
(Serbian) imports "Woe is me!" (S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 28: _Mlinar_, the miller. (S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 29: Wesely imagines that this expression has been introduced
into Serbian poetry by the influence of the interesting ballad on the
marriage of Maxim Cernojevic (see _Quarterly Review_ for December,
1826). The intimate intercourse which existed between Serbia and Venice
may account for the phraseology. (S. J. B.)]
[Footnote 30: This song, as also others signed "O. M.", has been
transversified by Robert Bulwer Lytton (Owen Meredith), "Serbske Pesme;
or National Songs of Serbia," London, 1861. (Edit.)]
[Footnote 31: _Kolo_, signifying literally a wheel, is the generic term
for all the Serbian national dances in most of which the dancers, either
taking hands, or united each to each by a handkerchief tied round the
waist or to the girdle, form a ring and advance or retreat to and from
the centre to a monotonous music, either of the voice or some very
simple wind instruments. Both sexes take part in these dances, which are
frequently in the open air. (O. M.)]
[Footnote 32: This song as also those signed "J. W. W.", has been
transversified and published by J. W. Wiles, "Serbian Songs and Poems:
Chords of the Yugoslav Harp," New York, 1917.]
[Footnote 33: _Hodza_, i. e. Mohammedan priest. (J. W. W.)]
[Footnote 34: Turkish seminary. (J. W. W.)]
[Footnote 35: _Kalfa_, governess. (J. W. W.)]
[Footnote 36: _Koledo_: In ancient times the Serbians, as all the Slavs,
often used this word as a refrain in their bucolic songs. It was an
address to _Ledo_, the ancient Slav divinity who presided over the
process of fertility and protected fields and flowers. (J. W. W.)]
[Footnote 37: Loud lamentations, by women rather than men, are an
ancient custom among the Serbs. These dirges are again and again
extemporized with spontaneous poetic feeling. Girls let down their hair
and lament in the orchards and precincts of the house. (J. W. W.)]
[Footnote 38: This song, as well as others signed "B. S. S.," has been
rendered into English by the Editor.]
[Footnote 39: "The Prayer of Karageorge's Lady" is number 685 of Vol. I
of Vuk Karadzic's collection. (Edition of 1891.)
[Footnote 40: No. 428 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 41: No. 445 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 42: No. 468 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 43: No. 474 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 44: No. 581 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 45: No. 792 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 46: No. 765 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 47: No. 247 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 48: No. 314 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 49: No. 338 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 50: No. 409 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 51: No. 446 Vol. V. (Edition of 1898).]
[Footnote 52: No. 298 Vol. V. (Edition of 1898).]
[Footnote 53: No. 279 Vol. V. (Edition of 1898).]
[Footnote 54: No. 335 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 55: No. 309 Vol. V. (Edition of 1898).]
[Footnote 56: No. 294 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 57: No. 466 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 58: No. 459 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 59: No. 453 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 60: No. 287 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 61: No. 472 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 62: No. 473 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 63: No. 482 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 64: No. 487 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 65: No. 488 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 66: No. 491 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 67: No. 300 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 68: No. 359 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]
[Footnote 69: No. 422 Vol. I. (Edition of 1891).]