Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic Nations: With a Sketch of Their Popular PoetryTalvj
History
Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic Nations: With a Sketch of Their Popular Poetry
Talvj
Folk songs, Slavic; Slavic languages -- History; Slavic literature -- History and criticism
Some there are who envy
E'en my destiny;
Say, 'O happy flow'ret
Blooming on the lea.'
On the lea so sandy,
Sunny, wanting dew!
O without my lover
Life is dark to view.
Nought can please without him,
Seems the world a jail;
Happiness exists not,
Peace of mind doth fail.
Where, dark-browed belov'd one,
Where, O may'st thou be?
Come and see, astonished,
How I weep for thee!
Whom shall I now lean on,
Whose caress receive?
Now that he who loves me
Far away doth live?
I would fly to thee, love,
But no wings have I;
Withered, parch'd, without thee,
Every hour I die.
The following little elegy, heard and written down in Galicia, we have
always considered as one of the gems of poetry. It is a sigh of deep,
mourning, everlasting love.
THE DEAD LOVE.
White art thou, my maiden,
Can'st not whiter be!
Warm my love is, maiden,
Cannot warmer be!
But when dead, my maiden,
White was she still more;
And, poor lad, I love her,
Warmer than before.[41]
Of still greater importance in respect to our subject are the
SERVIANS. We have seen already in this work, that the inhabitants of
the Turkish provinces of Servia and Bosnia, of Montenegro, of the
Austrian kingdom of Slavonia, of Dalmatia and Military Croatia, speak
essentially the same language; which is likewise the vernacular
dialect of numerous Servian settlements in Hungary, along the
south-western shore of the Danube. Of this language, which has been
alternately called Illyrian, Servian, Morlachian, Bosnian, Croatian,
Rascian, and perhaps by still other different appellations, it may be
truly said, that it has more names than dialects; and even the few of
these latter differ so slightly, that the difference would scarcely be
perceived by a foreigner. It is also true, that, on account of the
various systems of writing which have been adopted by the different
sections of this race, the foreigner will sometimes find it more
difficult to understand the language as written than as spoken.
The inexhaustible mine of Servian popular poetry belongs then to the
whole nation; although, of course, neither the productiveness is every
where the same, nor the power and opportunity of preservation. For its
favourite home we must look to those regions where modern civilization
has least penetrated; viz. to Turkish Servia, Bosnia, Montenegro.
There also the vernacular language is spoken with the greatest purity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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