Slavonic languages. Later on he was for a certain time in the civil service of the Serbian Government. In 1813 he was forced to leave his country, which had again been conquered, and went to Vienna. Here chance brought him into contact with Yerney Kopitar, the well known Slavist, who was the first to write a scientific Slovene Grammar and to recommend the popular tongue for the literary language. He encouraged Vuk to write also a Serbian Grammar and Serbian Dictionary, and to introduce the vernacular speech into literature. This programme was adhered to by the latter, who all his life acknowledged gratefully what he owed to his mentor. His future life was devoted to the reformation of the Yugoslav language and gathering of traditional songs, legends, proverbs, riddles, customs and usages. In 1814-1815 Stefanovich published two volumes of Srpske Narodne Pesme (Serbian National Songs), which afterwards increased to four, then to six, and finally to nine volumes. In enlarged editions, these admirable songs drew towards themselves the attention of all literary Europe. Goethe characterized some of them as "excellent and worthy of a comparison with Solomon's Song of Songs." Jacob Grimm found in them a link between "Oriental and Occidental lyrics." He compares them with the noblest flowers of Homeric poetry, and for Zidanye Skadra na Boyani (Building of Scutari on the Boyana) he says that it is "one of the most touching poems of all nations and all times." The founders of the Romantic School in France, Charles Nodier, Prosper Mérimée and Lamartine, translated a goodly number of them, and they also attracted the attention of some English men of letters, Walter Scott, Owen Meredith, and John Bowring. In recent days we find a few collections of translated Serbian songs in both English and American literature. Especially good renderings were made during the World War and after by J. W. Wiles, H. Rootham, and D. H. Low. Stefanovich's great merit for Yugoslav letters is threefold. First, he revised the written speech; secondly, he collected the national poetry; and thirdly, he created a new basis of literary taste. His reform was founded on a phonetic principle, which is today known as simplified spelling (Write as you speak, and read as it is written). By this rule he introduced one sign for each sound, and one sound for each sign. Except the Spanish, perhaps, hardly any other nation in the civilized world has such a simple, logical and precise spelling system as this. His volumes of the popular ballads and lyrics were a discovery in the true sense of the word. They served as a standard for other similar collections in Slavonic literatures, and with their simple structure, their vision and breath of beauty, they inspired men of genius. A whole generation of Yugoslav poets was reared and educated in the spirit of the national poetry. And this was due to Vuk Stefanovich, to his invincible diligence and his ardent enthusiasm for lore and literature. The champions of Illyrism, instrumental in securing the triumph of Vuk and Gay, were Vraz, Mazhuranich and Raditchevich. Stanko Vraz was one of the principal stars in the Illyric (Yugoslav) firmament. He wrote love poems entitled Dyulabiye (The Red Apples) and several other collections of sonnets, ballads, verse-romances, and political satires. Ivan Mazhuranich is generally known by his classic epic Smrt Smail-Age Tchengicha (The Death of Ismail Aga Tchengich), published in 1846. This exquisite epopoeia, written in the meter of the heroic Serbian ballads, gives a vivid description of life in Herzegovina under Turkish rule, and of the hereditary border feuds between Christians and Moslems. The style of the poem is natural and noble, the diction nearly always correct and elegant, and the verse as a rule sonorous and full of harmony. In later life Mazhuranich gave up poetry and, plunging into the vortex of politics, distinguished himself as a statesman. Another writer, Branko Raditchevich, within a brief space of time contrived to enhance Yugoslav literature with several perennially attractive poems. Dyatchki Rastanak (The Students' Parting) is the best of his works. Nothing is lovelier in this remarkable poem than those passages in which he pictures the life of college students. For a time he gives himself up to the fleeting impressions of the moment. He greets the gently rolling hills and the changing scenes of the landscape. He revels in the calm and coolness of the forest and delights in the view of the Danube valley below with its widening rivers and vistas. In Put (The Road), a magnanimous allegory, Branko has shown unusual skill in satirical nomenclature by stigmatizing Vuk's adversaries who disapproved the reform of language and orthography. In the epic Stoyan he dared to measure himself with Byron, imitating Lara, and naturally came off as poorly as Belial might have done from a contest with Raphael. However the lyrics of this talented man display extreme tenderness, beauty, originality and delicacy of fancy. Some of his shorter pieces are adapted to national melodies and are sung by younger people all over the country. His poetry is small in bulk and slight in body, but it endures, and will endure, in Yugoslav literature, because it is the embodiment of the spirit of immortal youth. Branko is the poet of spring, and those who have not read him before the meridian of their lives may abandon all hope of perusing him when the snows of time are on their heads. II More perfect in their construction and technical execution than the above mentioned poets were Nyegosh, Preshern, and Preradovich. Petar Petrovich Nyegosh, the Magnus Parens of modern Yugoslav poetry, was a native of Montenegro. He commenced a career of literary exertion by the publication of a small collection of national songs. In 1845 he wrote Lutcha Mikrokosma (The Light of the Microcosm), a poem of great energy and sublimity of sentiment, founded on an episode of Milton's Paradise Lost. After two years appeared Gorski Venats (The Mountain Wreath), a dramatic masterpiece of magnificent conception, in which are described the virile qualities of his race. It is often called the "Serbian Iliad", and really there are in it some verses condensed into epigrams more concise than the Greeks ever uttered: Merchant plays you with a smile beguiling, No one ever drained the cup of honey, By the mingling one makes light the drinking Besides writing Gorski Venats, Nyegosh is also the author of Stepan Mali (Stephen the Little), a drama without dramatic action, the theme of which was drawn from local history. Stephen the Little, the Montenegrin Rasputin, was a monk and adventurer who presented himself as the escaped Peter III, the murdered husband of Catherine II. After a few years this impostor of the Perkin Warbeck type was recognized and put to death. The mystery which generally surrounded the early Slavonic rulers, particularly marked in this case, gave Nyegosh good material which he handled in a masterly manner. France Preshern was in certain respect a votary of classicism, especially in his collection Sonetni Venets (The Sonnet Wreath). In his epic Krst pri Savitsi (Baptism on the Savitsa) he manifested a clear tendency toward Romanticism. He was an apt, though not a servile, disciple of Byron, the brothers Schlegel, Bürger, and other "poets of full moon.' The romantic love for mediæval traditions has complete expression in two dramas Marko Kralyevich and Vladimir i Kosara of Petar Preradovich. But this man achieved widespread popularity with his lyric poems. His pensive melancholy expressed itself in the allegory Putnik (The Traveler), which hides a whole life of homelessness and isolation. The same note of sadness and longing is felt in his songlet Miruy, miruy, srtse moye (Be still, my heart, be still). Some lines of the latter remind one of Musset's Tu te gonfles, mon cœur, although it is quite different in melody of words and structure: Who has stirred thee, heart of mine, That thou art so restless now? As a bird in cage thou longest, In the heavens to wing thy way. Be still, my heart, be still! In most of his poems Preradovich upheld a mystic patriotism in the manner of the Polish messianists and Czechoslovak panslavists. But being too reflective, and not so keen as his progenitors, he did not exercise any decided influence on his successors. The younger Romantic movement is represented by Lyuba Nenadovich, Dyura Yakshich, Yovan Yovanovich Zmay, Yosip Stritar, Yanko Yurkovich, August Shenoa, and Laza Kostich. Nenadovich was an author of considerable reputation and ability. His travels, in the form of letters, describe the sundry manners of western European people in their private and social life. He edited for several years a literary review Shumadinka. He also wrote lyric poems, but they did not bring him high fame so much as his versified Zapisi (The Inscriptions). The ease, elegance, and humorous mirth of these aphorisms have made many couplets pass into the memory and language of society. Dyura Yakshich, a king in heroic style, was a painter, educator and author. He may be considered the ideal representative of the age of Omladina (Youth). Into his Stories he infused creations of his own romantic fancy free from all external influences. His dramas The Migration of the Serbs (1864), Elisabeth (1868), and Stanoye Glavash (1878) are soaked with the essence of his nationality. They are lacking in technique, but they are full of inspiration. His song Na Liparu (On the Lipar Hill) is tender, and rises at length into a strain of grandeur and loftiness, which later poets have never been able to surpass. Some of his poems are marked with pessimism. A gloomy trait is particularly noticeable in his incantation Ponoch (Midnight) ending with a deeply sad tone: The door creaked Oh, ghostly spirit! Oh, dear shadow! |