Transcribed from the 1827 Baldwin, Cradock and Joy edition byDavid Price,
НАРОДНЕСРПСКЕПЈЕСМЕ.
SERVIAN POPULAR POETRY,
TRANSLATEDBY
JOHN BOWRING.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR:
SOLD BY BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY,PATERNOSTER-ROW:
AND ROWLAND HUNTER, ST. PAUL’SCHURCHYARD.
1827.
p. iiLONDON:
PRINTED BY THOMAS DAVISON,WHITEFRIARS.
p.iiiTO
DR. STEPH. VUK KARADJICH.
My friend! it isthou, it is thou
Who hast usher’d these gems into day;
’Tis my pride and my privilege now
To honour—I fain would repay
Thy toils, and would bind round thy brow
The laurels that grow o’er thy lay.
We knew that the sun-light shone fair
On thy Servia;—we knew ’twas a clime
Of mountains and streams, where the air
Was fragrant,—though history and time
p. ivHadrear’d not their pyramids there:
But we knew not the spirit sublime
Of music, and pathos, and song,
Look’d down from the towers of Belgrad,
Had dwelt in the Mōrava long,
In the garb of Trebunia was clad;
We welcome thee now to the throng
Of our muses, rejoicing and glad.
Unborrow’d the light thou hast shed,
Though mild as the light of the moon:
Thy flowers, from thine own native bed,
Thou hast gather’d and given: Not soon
Shall they fade; and thy music shall spread,
And voices unnumber’d attune.
My song will but fall on thine ear,
As a voice that appeals to the grave:
p. vIn vain Iinvite thee to hear:
Go, happy enthusiast! and save
From time’s storm the memorials so dear,
Which had else been o’erwhelm’d in itswave.
Thy tenement is but of clay;
Thou art frailer than most of us be:
Yet a sunshine has lighted thy way,
Whose effluence is sunshine to me:—
And ’tis sweet o’er thy Servia to stray,
And to listen, pale minstrel! to thee.
p.viiINTRODUCTION.
In the middle of the seventhcentury, a number of Slavonian tribes stretched themselves alongthe Sava and the Danube, down to the Black Sea, and founded, atdifferent times, no less than six separate kingdoms, those ofBulgaria, Croatia, Servia, Bosnia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia; underthe name Srb, the four last of these nations must beconsidered as comprised. p. viiiTheir earlier history it is noteasy to trace. Slavonian writers are disposed to representthe Maestidæ, who made an incursion into Italy during theage of Claudius Tacitus (A.D. 276), as synonymous with the