O maiden, thou gentlest rose When thou wert growing what didst thou behold? Hast thou observed a pine-tree growing Or the slender, proud fir-tree blowing, Or did'st gaze at my youngest brother?—
O glad, young hero, brilliant Sun! Never at the pine-tree blowing Have I look'd in wonder gazing Neither at the slender fir-tree, Nor thy youngest brother, free, Rather have I grown to suit thee, Tender knight, to suit but thee. B. S. S.
NOTES
[1] This song as also those signed "S. J. B." has been transversified and published by (Sir) John Bowring, "Servian Popular Poetry," London, 1827.
[2] The Serbian peasants, especially women, firmly believe that saints, parents, rulers, bishops and clergymen have the privilege of cursing and that the person to whom the curse is addressed is bound to undergo the consequences pronounced by the curser. There are several instances in the Serbian heroic ballads by which it is proven that the national Serbian bards, and indeed all the peasants who participated in the composition of their epic poetry, believe that curses pronounced by privileged persons always come true. Thus in the ballad Uros and Mrnjavcevici King Vukasin of Macedonia, angry with his son Marko Kralyevich because the latter, when chosen for arbiter, said that the imperial crown belonged to Carevic Uros and not to him (Vukasin), exclaimed:
"O son Marko, may God smother thee! Mayest thou have no tomb, nor progeny May thy soul not leave thy body Before thou hast served the Turkish emperor!"
While Marko's kingly father cursed him, Carevic Uros blesses him thus:
"O my Kum Marko, God second thee! Thy face shine at divan Thy sabre smother in duels! May no one excel thee in heroism Thy name be reverently remembered. As long as Sun and Moon shine!"
And the bard finishes his poem with, "Whatever they said, it came true."
Another oral tradition tells us how a nobleman Velimir Bogati (Velimir the Rich) who once refused hospitality to Knez Lazar, the emperor of Serbia (1389), was cursed by the noble prince and how Velimir's first son indeed drowned himself in the river Lepenica, his second son fell from his horse and died in consequence of the accident and how his third, and now only son, was imprisoned by his father in one of the remotest towers of his castle in order to avoid any danger of experiencing the prince's curse. One day, however, Velimir Bogati brought to his imprisoned son some grapes from his own vineyard, in order that the poor young fellow should at least know what time of the year it was, and lo! while the boy was eating the grapes a small viper jumped out of the bunch and mortally bit him. The news of the sudden death of the young nobleman spread rapidly amongst the neighboring villages and fortified the peasants in their belief that one cannot escape the curse.