AN ANTHOLOGY OF
JUGOSLAV POETRY
SERBIAN LYRICS
EDITED BY
Dr. B. STEVENSON STANOYEVICH
BOSTON
RICHARD G. BADGER
THE GORHAM PRESS
Copyright, 1920, By Richard G.Badger
All Rights Reserved
Made in the United States of America
The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A.
TRANSLITERATION OF UNUSUAL JUGOSLAV SCRIPT:
a = a in father, garden
e = e in men, envoy
i = i in tin, ill
o = o in son, note
u = u in rule, rumor
j = y in yoke, yes
c = ts in cats, lots
lj = ly in William, million
dj = dy in endure, verdure
gj = gy in George
nj = ny in Kenyon, opinion
č = tch in watch, catch
ć = ch in culture, literature
š = sh in ship, shade
ž = zh in azure, seizure
dž = dzh in Badger, or j in James
The rest of the letters correspond to the English sounds.
PREFACE
"Give me the making of a nation's songs, and let who willmake their laws," was the maxim of a Scottish patriot. We would preferto modify this rule, and say, "Give us the poems which the people makefor themselves, and then we shall obtain a clear insight into thenational character and learn what customs and laws they are likely toaccept or reject." Folk-songs are the intimate expressions of the ideasof the people. What the comic drama is to the cultured, and themusic-hall to the ill-educated portions of urban population, the popularsong has been, and in some countries still is, to the rural peasantry, atrue exponent of their sentiments, though too frequently inaccurate instatements of facts. Critics, as is well known, have censured LordMacaulay for his indiscriminate adoption of the vulgar and oftenmalignant rhapsodies sung in the streets of London. But the Russianbylina, collected by Danilov, Rybnikov, Sreznevsky and others,may be taken as furnishing unimpeachable evidence of the state of Russiaduring the invasions of the Mongols and Turks. The Jacobite poems giveus the real feelings of the people of Scotland for nearly an entirecentury. The popular and rustic strains which are handed down from thereign of Henry III have rehabilitated the memory of Simon de Montfort.Moore's Irish melodies, originally composed for the delectation ofEnglish aristocrats, have been so generally admired in his native landthat they exhibit pretty clear indications of what the Irish patriotswould like to do if they had the power. And the battle-hymn by Rouget deLisle is not only popular in France, but has recently been sung by theRussian bolsheviki when marching to occupy Tsarskoe Selo and otherimperial lands.
The songs to which the English form has been given in the followingvolume have been taken mostly from Vuk Karadžić's invaluablecollection: Srpske Narodne Pjesme (Serbian National Songs).Karadžić, of whom the literary world has heard so much, is thefather of modern Serbian literature. He spent many years among thepeasants in collecting the national treasures: ballads, tales, proverbs,anecdotes and other folklore. Before his time the songs had never beenreduced to written form, and were kept out of reach of the public ear.He was only able to hear them partly because of a ruse and partly insecret, when he listened with inexhaustible patience to the girlsspinning, or the guslars (bards) trolling in taverns and atfairs, or the reapers chanting at their work. In the prefac