and our singing stopped. Under the Turks the Serbian people sang. You
can find in the British Museum ten big volumes of the Serbian national
poetry which was composed during the time of the Turkish rule in Serbia.
This rule was very hard and very dark indeed, but still we considered
ourselves as the champions of the Cross against the Crescent, and we
imagined that we should be the bulwark of Christian Europe, i.e. of
Central Europe in the first place. Therefore we endured the struggle
with the Turks, singing and hoping. And now--the two _Christian_
Kaisers, with a fox from Sofia, have crushed Serbia more completely than
she ever was crushed by the Turks. "Come back to your homes and your
customs," so the Kaiser William invited the Serbian refugees.
"To your customs!" But, oh _illustrissime Caesar,_ we could reply, our
first and best custom is to sing. Tell us, how we could sing now? You
know, oh Kaiser, because you preached the Bible also, you must know the
Biblical complaints of the Israel of old: "By the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hung our
harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried
us away captive required of us a song, saying, Sing us one of the songs
of Zion? How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" You are
now playing a real Babylonian role towards us Serbs, i.e. towards a
people who fought for the Cross, who sang freedom and who were crucified
for justice. You are not a better man than any peasant from the Serbian
villages. Do you want a proof? The Serbian peasant can sing, and you
cannot. You cannot sing, not because of your diseased throat, but
because of your evil conscience. You stopped the singing in a country
of songs, oh ill majesty! How could we now sing our songs while our
homes are transformed into empty caves? How could we sing, seeing our
bread in strangers' hands and cold stones in ours? How could we sing
now, when all our past protests against you and all our dead are
disturbed in their graves? You covered our country with sins and crimes,
and it is not our custom to sing of sins and crimes, but of virtues.
When will you show us your virtues? You have shown us until now only
your iron and fire, your brutality and brutality, and again brutality
and brutality,--and, did I say?--iron and fire. That is the essence of
your religion and science, of your soul and glory. We will despise all
that you brought into our country. Let us be silent, Sire, and you may
continue to show your Mephistophelean civilisation, and after you have
crushed all those who are weaker and smaller than you, Sire, open your
lips and preach upon their ruin to your admirers: _cantate Domino!_ But
we will not sing after our custom of old in your presence. We prefer to
be silent and to wait for God's judgment.
The Hidden Moral Treasures of the Serbian people are now shining, as
always, throughout all the times of darkness and suffering.
You will remember from the beginning of the war all the declarations of
the Serbian government about the Serbian loyalty to the end. Some among
you might have thought: such declarations are dictated by political
reasons. No, such declarations have been only a poor expression of what
we all in Serbia thought and felt. Loyalty to friends, devotion to our
pledged word, fidelity to the signed and unsigned treaties were always
considered in Serbia as sacred duties in the conscience of the people.
Our morale is not something that was learned in the schools--do not
forget we had no schools for centuries--but rather an inherited treasure
which every man was obliged to keep in great brilliancy. It is not a
morale supported by learning, sophisms and quotations, it is an
elementary power which is not a possession, but which has possession of
everybody. Our Prime Minister uttered the other day these words: "Better
to die in beauty than to live in shame!" Fifteen hundred years ago
similar words were uttered on this island of yours by a knight of
Beowulf's escort: "Death is better than a life of shame." Every child in
Serbia thinks the same as our Prime Minister about the value of life and
death.
"Better to die than" to live so and so, or than to do this or
that--hundreds of the Serbian proverbs begin with those words. In
proverbs is expressed our moral wisdom, in proverbs and poetry. Yet our
proverbs are poetry as well. The morale is regarded not so much as a
teaching, rather as poetry, like history. History and morality are
things which shall be sung, history and morality are such dignified
topics that they must be expressed in a dignified, solemn language.
Poetry is the very essence of things. It is the most earnest thing in
the world. That is our opinion.
The Serbs read the Bible very little, although they had the Bible in
their own language and used it in divine service before you used it in
the church of your own. The Bible was listened to in the church, but
poetry at home. As Shakespeare can be called your second Bible, so, and
still more, our national poetry for us has been indeed a second Bible.
Our poetry has been our history, our moral, our beauty, our hopes, our
education, our encouragement--our Bible. By our poetry, as by the Bible,
the morale is not only taught but inspired. What is this morale, taught
by Serbian poetry and proverbs, when uttered in a dry form?
"Dear God, we thank thee for all," that is the usual beginning of every
poem.
Love? Love is better than justice.
Justice? Justice is better than injustice.
Injustice? It must be punished.
Suffering? It must be relieved.
Patience? That is the great virtue of the sufferers.
Honour? Better to die than to give up honour.
Dishonour? It means as much as death.
Mercifulness? It shines like the sun over the world.
A beggar? He puts your heart to the test.
Death? God is behind death and therefore death is no evil.
Prayer? It shall be used always, but it never helps unless we do our
best.
Humility? It is always rewarded by love.
Fearlessness? It is commended very strongly.
Cowardice? It is repudiated and despised to the utmost.
Obedience? Youth must be obedient and respectful towards old people.
Chastity? Better to burn down a church than to take or to give away
chastity.
Protection of the weak? Marko protected weak people and animals. That is
a great merit.
Chivalry? Always; towards friends and enemies.
Work? Without work prayer does not help.
Freedom? Man is man only in living in freedom and in fighting for
freedom.
Wealth? It is no virtue, and if it does not support virtue, it is a
vice.
God? He is the Lord of the World and thy steady companion.
Such morals have been preached, yea, sung by our ancestors, and by
ourselves. Certainly we have sinned often against these morals, but in
our sins and in our virtues they have been always regarded as a standard
of all that is good and beautiful.