Serbia in Light and Darkness: With Preface by the Archbishop of Canterbury, (1916)Velimirović, Nikolaj
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Serbia in Light and Darkness: With Preface by the Archbishop of Canterbury, (1916)
Velimirović, Nikolaj
Proverbs, Serbian; Serbia; Serbian poetry -- Translations into English
When I recall this prayer in my memory, I feel more piety, more humility
and more comfort than I ever felt in any of the big cathedrals in either
hemisphere where I have had the opportunity of praying. This prayer of
the Serbian peasants, beautiful in its simplicity and touching in its
sincerity, survived generation after generation, and has been victorious
over all crimes that the strangers of the Asiatic or of the European
faith have committed on us. Our tenacious and incessant prayer is an
evident sign of our tenacious and unbroken hope. We pray because we
hope; we hope still more after we have prayed.
Everything can be disturbed in Serbia except prayer. The invasion of the
Kaiser's troops in Serbia disturbed and perturbed everything in Serbia,
but the prayer of the Serbian people still continues. Enslaved in
Serbia, dispersed as the refugees are all over the world, we pray to the
God of Justice, now as always. Our prayer means our hope. The Kaiser's
subjects and the Bulgarian slaves can kill everything in Serbia--and the
purpose of their coming into Serbia is killing--but they never can kill
our hope. Martyred Serbia, your loyal ally, oh noble sons and daughters
of Great Britain, is now silent and powerless. Enemies and friends can
now laugh her to scorn. She will remain silent. I am sure you will
respect this silence of the Crucified. I am sure everyone of you will
do his best to redeem Serbia. Well, Serbia can now give, after all, her
cause to God and can wait the end hopefully. She can now say to the
Kaiser, her conqueror and lord, the words of one of your great poets:
"I have lost, you have won this hazard yet perchance
My loss may shine yet goodlier than your gain
When time and God give judgement."
A C Swinburne (_Faliero_).
SERBIA IN ARMS.
Delivered before the English Soldiers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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