Remembering the Poor in Serbian and South-Slav Oral Poetry
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Remembering the Poor in Serbian and South-Slav Oral Poetry Sonja Petrović ABSTRACT Memories of the poor and impoverished in Serbian and South Slavic oral poetry are linked to contradictory beliefs: poverty is explained by reasons of fate, some offence, sin, or misfortune, however, the poor (as well as orphans, widows, wretched, etc.) are considered to be intermediaries between this world and the next, therefore close to God and the ancestors, and who possess certain healing and miraculous powers. These beliefs are merged and intermixed with other ideas about the poor, which entered oral tradition through human experience and everyday life, and were influenced by historical, social and economic changes (the poor who do not work or do not wish to contribute to their community, become asocial threat and their lifestyle and use of welfare are disapproved of). In Serbian and South Slavic folk songs and ballads, representations of the poor and impoverished are diverse regarding aspects, such as, the selection of motifs and genre, time, place, context of recording, etc. Representations of the poor and impoverished in Serbian and South Slavic oral poetry vary from tragic to comic, from idealistic to ironic, or the subject can be depicted from amoral or realist standpoint. Poverty is usually related to the person’s private life, his or her feelings and moods, and may reflect their attitudes toward family, nature, community or society. Different portrayals of the poor and impoverished may reveal personal experiences, collective customary law and practices, way of life, ethical and religious norms, asystem of values, as well as psychological motivation or background. Special attention will be paid to poverty as afact of daily life, and to realistic details which make the songs and the characters particularly convincing and vivid. KEYWORDS: poverty, remembrance, epic poetry, Serbia, South Slavs 1. ON REMEMBRANCE AND POVERTY Memory and remembering are inseparable from the folklore process and an inevitable subject in discussions on oral transmission, creation and variation. They also deal with the relationship between the individual and the collective in folklore. There has been much discussion about what and how folklore remembers the artistic handling of customs and beliefs, mythical motifs, historical events and figures, geographical toponyms, societal attitudes, cultural patterns, etc., and what the individual creator remembers. Various theories on memory through the examination of oral tradition have tended to be concerned with the creative process, modelled on Bartlett’s (1932) analysis on the extent to which stories are transformed in the course of transmission, or in Rubin’s (1995) research with cognitive models: the types of stability and variability in certain genres and the role of formulae in creation and transmission, including exploration of transitionary forms between oral and written literature. Folklore semioticians point out that the ability of oral tradition to remember comes from its characteristic ability to transfer information (Nekliudov 2002). To be OPEN ACCESS
SONJA PETROVIć 171 able to transmit information over an extended period— oral transmission features alengthy process or longue durée— the traditional material must be subjected to atransference process which includes the selection, compression and generalization of the material. Due to this accretion of traditional elements, some information is suppressed and lost, while some is adapted and retained, so that the various forms of traditional knowledge, folklore themes and genres, customs, beliefs and ethnographic and cultural details, are preserved. The information preserved in oral tradition is usually unreliable in terms of historical accuracy. Mistakes are customary: anachronisms, transference of the names of historical figures to fictive characters, imaginative reconstructions of historical events, the addition or discarding of motifs, or the invention of astoryline and causal-consequential relationships created to produce aconvincing plot. However, despite the poetic embellishments and additional story building, oral tradition abounds in data over abroad spectrum from the life of the traditional man, even daily life, and so holds up amirror to the culture. Poverty— part and parcel of daily life in the traditional culture of the Balkans— was transposed into oral poetry as apoetic element. Historically, poverty was acharacteristic of most South-Slav rural populations. For the duration of the ruling independent medieval states, up to the fourteenth century, and under Ottoman rule (fifteenth to nineteenth centuries), Balkan South-Slavs were subjected to wars, devastation and natural catastrophes. Due to the uncertainty of everyday life, they were often forced to migrate. According to historical and ethnographic data, people disposed of humble means and lived in modest dwellings. Economically, they were crushed by the demands of taxation and the corvée. The main occupations of agriculture and cattle-breeding were underdeveloped, and peasants often did not own the land on which they worked. Folklore has only apiecemeal recall of the processes which contributed to the people’s poverty, e.g., hungry years, the imposition of taxes and other levies, the imprisonment of debtors, or individual cases of their struggle for daily existence. Oral poetry recognises categories such as beggars, the homeless, penniless single mothers, widows, orphans, impoverished peasants, soldiers and outlaws, nomads such as herdsmen, hauliers with horses and carts, impoverished peasants and artisans forced to travel abroad to find temporary employment, etc. The historical and social circumstances surrounding the origin and development of oral poetry among the South-Slav peoples were fairly similar, notwithstanding ethnic and confessional differences; the structure of folklore genres was also similar.1 Most South Slav oral poetry was collected in the nineteenth century, during atime of national awakening and continued into the twentieth century. The bodies of the 1 With regard to terminology, the main types of oral poetry among the South-Slavs were epic song, lyrical song and lyrical-epic song. The term ‘lyrical-epic songs’ is more or less parallel with ‘ballads and romances”, ‘narrative songs’ and ‘non-historical songs”. ‘Nonhistorical songs’ is aconditional term for epic songs in which mythological, legendary and novelistic motifs prevail. However, that does not mean that these songs are devoid of historical elements (Pešić, Milošević-Đorđević 1984: 175). Lyrical-epic songs or ballads are thematically divided into: mythological, legendary, historical, songs about personal and family relations and daily life songs, novelistic ballads or romances. OPEN ACCESS
172 STUDIA ETHNOLOGICA PRAGENSIA 1/2023 poetry are very diversified and reflect alengthy period of development, which should be borne in mind while considering the theme of poverty. The thematic register of Serbian and South-Slavic songs on poverty may generally be divided into serious or humorous-ironical modes. In the first group, we encounter social, ethical, religious and moralistic themes, in the second, parodies and mocking songs. The rules of the genre and specific style considerably affect the song’s interpretation. In epic songs, the poor are presented from the broader perspective of heroism and its place in the divine order, so that characteristic motifs are the protection or oppression of the poor and the tears and curses of paupers. In lyrical songs and ballads, poverty is usually shown as the cause of personal and family misfortune— the indigence which encumbers the individual, frustrates him, banishes him to the margins of society and sometimes leads to his death. The motif of poverty is intertwined with love, family, or legendary motifs of time-honoured international themes. 2. POVERTY IN EPIC POETRY The poverty motif in Serbian and South-Slav epic songs appear as part of the plot or in connection with the characters and are incorporated into various international themes. Since the epic world is aconstruction modelled on the real world and built on the laws of credibility, the artistic model of the world does not coincide with the real one but is in correlation to it (Putilov 1990), ordered according to the laws of epic stylisation, its motifs synchronised with the underlying idea of the specific work. Thus, the motif of poverty has been reworked multiple times compared to the model of reality. Epic songs preserve general recollections of established relations and the obligation of rulers and heroes to protect the poor, as shown in the motifs of paupers’ tears and curses, which act as ethical regulators of behaviour. The motifs of poverty are also encountered in the depiction of characters, apart of artistic procedure which contributes to vivid storytelling and can sometimes be asource of humour. 2.1. THE mOTIF OF PAUPER CURSES AND TEARS The motif of apauper’s curse is based on the belief that the poor must not be made to suffer, which parallels religious teachings. The curse is based on traditional faith in the magic of words; it is usually uttered as athreat and arouses fear. The pauper’s tears, when accompanied by acurse, are less ritualised and more emotional in meaning. They serve to intensify feeling and may be interpreted as an expression of helplessness induced by exposure to injustice and humiliation. In epic songs, curses and tears regulate the behaviour of the protagonists and may obviate the need for the curse to be uttered. The greatest hero of the South-Slav epic, Marko Kraljević, at the very thought that the poor might damn him, decides to act chivalrously. When Mina of Kostur plunders Marko’s court and abducts his beloved, the Ottoman sultan offers to build him anew court by taxing the poor, but Marko firmly refuses: OPEN ACCESS
SONJA PETROVIć 173 „Ал’ говори Краљевићу Марко: – Фала тебе, царе поочиме! Кад ти станеш мене дворе градит, Мене хоће сиротиња клети: Гле крвника Краљевића Марка! Они су му двори изгорели, А ови му пусти останули! Да м’ учиниш агом харачлинским, Ја харача покупит не могу Док не свежем ништа и убога, Па ће мене сиротиња клети: Гле крвника Краљевића Марка! Оно му је благо однесено, А ово му остануло пусто!’ (Караџић 1845/1988: бр. 62) ‘But Marko Kraljević answered: – Thanks be to thee, my father the Sultan!’2 But, and if thou build me amanor, The poor will curse me, saying: See the whoreson Kraljević Marko! His old manor is burnt with fire, May his new one avail him naught!— And if thou makest me collector of poll-tax, Imay not gather the taxes, If Ibind not the poor and needy. And the poor will curse me— See the whoreson Kraljević Marko, The gold he had was ravished away, May this gold also do him naught of profit.’ (Karadžić 1845/1988: No 62; Low 1922: 97) Using Marko as an example, the epic singer illustrates the importance of moral behaviour towards the poor and towards subordinates in general. As akind of regulative, the curse from the poor is important for the creation of ahumanistic universe conceived as an ideal of equality amongst people and of arighteous moral order. Traditional beliefs that the poor enjoyed divine protection, led to them being accorded aprivileged status in certain magical rites and rituals. It was held that en2 In Serbian oral epic, Marko has been depicted, among other things, as an Ottoman vassal, areflection of the true relationship between Marko Mrnjavčević (c.1335–1395), an historical figure who provides some of the character of the epic Marko, and Sultan Bayezid I(c.1360–1403). Epic songs, however, show Marko as quite independent and superior in relation to the Sultan: even though he fulfills his feudal obligations and fights at the Sultan’s behest, he breaks Ottoman laws, drinks wine at Ramadan, dances next to Ottoman women in the kolo, wears agreen overcoat and threatens the sultan, who fears him and then adopts him. This is why Marko addresses him as ‘father”. OPEN ACCESS
174 STUDIA ETHNOLOGICA PRAGENSIA 1/2023 dangering the poor brought with it punishment or malediction. In oral literature, such beliefs are frequently built into the plot and such plots usually have mandatory elements such as an offence (violence or sin against the poor) and punishment or malediction for the perpetrators. For instance, there is awidespread belief that goods seized from apoor man are cursed; there are songs that sing of abridge or areligious endowment, built from the proceeds of exploiting the poor or using illgotten gains. Such edifices cannot endure and are considered accursed (Petranović 1870: No 52; Hörmann 1888: No 3). If the offence against the poor endangers the survival of the family, the consequences for the offender may mean death. Several songs tell of alord or king who takes the only sons away from families for military campaigns, leaving husbandless mothers to fend for themselves without male help, or who takes several sons from one family. These rulers soon die, cursed by the poor for their misdeeds. The curses also catch up with outlaws who take into their band people whose absence will lead to the destitution of their families. In the songs, the ethic code is clearly formulated— if the outlaws do not want the poor to curse them and so call down an evil fate and die in battle, they can take into their ranks only the homeless, since they will not be missed by anyone (Gezeman 1925: No 136), or people without afamily, who will not be mourned by anyone (Karadžić 1846/1988: No 73, Milutinović 1837/1990: No 82). Although the motifs of punishment and damnation for oppressing the poor are given artistic form in oral epic songs as areminder of certain religious teaching or ethical laws, there was also evidence from actual historical events, woven into oral tradition through collective memory. Historical, ethnographic and memoir documents of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries chronicle the reactions of ordinary people to the merciless recruitment by the Austrians, which devastated homes, created trauma and had huge economic consequences. There is agraphic testimony to this by Petar Runjanin, aparish priest from the Srem village of Kuzmin. He describes how in 1765, during the Seven Years’ War with Prussia, more than 80 soldiers left Kuzmin, and their wives and children were handed over to neighbours who were unfit to serve, to till their lands. During the mass mobilization of 1778 and 1779 during the War of Bavarian Succession between Austria and Prussia, many families were targeted, including those with only sons, so such broken families without male heirs soon perished, and others had to return to their old homes in Serbia. In the war against the Ottomans, in 1788 and 1789, all those who could bear arms were recruited, and those who were left behind were employed in transporting ammunition and feeding the army. Only those incapable of serving in the army— the old, the crippled, women and children— could work— however little— on the land in order to survive (Runjanin 1936: 24–25). 2.2. PROTECTION OF THE POOR AND THE SALVATION OF THE SOUL The motifs of tears and curses from the poor are closely connected to the universal theme of protecting the poor and other endangered categories. Protection is one of the most important roles of epic rulers and heroes and is apoetic procedure used to idealise and ennoble them as characters. Protection leans on the belief that rulers OPEN ACCESS
SONJA PETROVIć 175 and heroes are symbolic proponents of divine will and that by executing it, they protect the balance of cosmic order. Saints do this more directly: they protect the poor by miracles, thus establishing justice and astate of balance, and at the same time demonstrating the supremacy of the Christian faith compared with non-Christians or pagans. The role of rulers to protect the poor is both universal and historical, so epics can be backed by historical sources. In Serbian epic songs, aprominent protector of the poor is Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović (c.1329–1389), the historical and epic martyr of the Battle of Kosovo. Singers praise Lazar for choosing his soldiers with care (he did not take only sons), so as not to give the poor areason to curse him. When he was building Ravanica— the church in which he was to be buried— he built it out of his own pocket, without oppressing the poor with taxes. Lazar’s epic character is embellished by the virtues of ajust ruler, defender of the land from the Ottomans and afighter for ‘the honourable cross and golden freedom”. Similar traits are ascribed to him in cult writings, where he is celebrated as the epigone of Christ, the leader and good shepherd whose prayers protect his flock from the wolves, avaliant champion of true piety and the heavenly kingdom, the builder and adorner of holy churches and the giver of abundant alms to the poor (see Mihaljčić 1989: 70). Verses of the folk song declaring that Lazar built Ravanica Monastery ‘with his own bread and his own wealth, without the tears of beggared folk’ (Karadžić 1845/1988: No 53, Devrnja Zimmerman 1986: 199), entirely coincide with the monastery’s founding charter, which states that all of Lazar’s generosity comes from his own land, that he did not take it by force or by appropriating someone else’s property, but by purchase or exchange (Trifunović 1995: 26). This is not about the direct influence of cult writings or afounding charter on epic songs, but rather about cultural memory— the transmission of ideas associated with the character of Prince Lazar in oral tradition, the monastery at Ravanica and his other legacies as places of remembrance and periodic ritual practices, which lead to the celebration of Lazar as agreat martyr in the ecclesiastical calendar, the church and folk cults dedicated to him. The obligation of epic heroes to protect the poor was part of their chivalrous and ethical code. Ahero’s campaign might be motivated by his obligation to the poor, and so Marko Kraljević starts off as the Sultan’s champion, pitting himself against the ruffian Musa Kesedžija, since the Sultan was tired of ‘the sore complaints of the poor / against the accursed Musa’ (Karadžić 1845/1988: No 67). The attitude of epic protagonists towards the poor is significant when it comes to characterizing them. Representatives of ‘our’ camp, the perspective from which the narrator tells the story, are protective and compassionate. They honour the poor not only out of chivalrous duty and respect for custom, but also for the salvation of their souls. Jevrosima, the mother of Marko Kraljević, known in the songs as amodel of righteousness and morality, takes in and feeds the ‘poor and wretched on their patron saint’s day’3 with the same cordiality she extends to noblemen and bishops (Karadžić 1845/1988: No 72). In contrast, ‘other’ (‘alien’) heroes, opponents or traitors of ‘our’ camp, harass the poor and receive their curses. This polarization is the basis 3 Patron saint’s day— aSerbian folk and church custom of celebrating the patron saint. OPEN ACCESS
176 STUDIA ETHNOLOGICA PRAGENSIA 1/2023 for positioning the characters (hero vs. opponent, one’s own (people) vs. the other, good vs. evil). The saints also regularly protect the poor, usually by means of miracles, as for instance in songs about Ottoman raids on monasteries. The Abbot of Dečani4 dissuades the Turk Jaut-bey from pillaging the monastery since it contains the donations of poor folk: ‘If you take away the poor’s possessions / many of the poor will curse you’ (Vuk IV, 16). Jaut-bey turns adeaf ear and soon the saints’ retribution overtakes him at the hands of the outlaw Petar Mrkonjić, who pledges himself to the king and founder, St.Stefan Decanski5, saves the monastery and drives out the Ottomans. Both past and recent epic heroes are depicted as protectors of the poor, the same being true for those who fought in the First Serbian uprising (1804–1813) and the Second (1815–1817). The songs point out that the rebel leaders care for the poor, following the examples of past legendary heroes (Karadžić 1862/1986: No 31). Therefore their role is not only commemorative but part of the systematic motivation for the uprising. The moment the Ottomans lay siege to Loznica, the voivode (military leader) Anta Bogičević knows that if the poor are abandoned to the Ottomans, no soul can be saved: ‘Али што ће јадне наше душе? Душе неће виђет божјег лица, Сиротиња с нас муке допада.’ (Караџић 1862/1986: бр. 33) ‘But what will happen to our poor souls? These souls will not see the face of God, The poor have fallen with us into misfortune.’ (Karadžić 1862/1986: No 33) Even the leader of the First Serbian uprising, Karađorđe Petrović, in the manner of amedieval ruler, felt responsibility for the poor, whom he compassionately called ‘crvopisak’ or ‘worm squeak’. He is otherwise remembered in history as astern man with ashort temper who instilled awe in his contemporaries; in songs by the bard of the Uprising, Filip Višnjić, Karađorđe is portrayed in asomewhat idealized manner as asevere but just leader who works for the good of the people, protects the poor and cares about saving his soul: 4 One of the most beautiful Serbian medieval monuments and on the UNESCO world heritage list, the monastery of Visoki Dečani in Kosovo and Metohija was built by Prince Stefan Uroš Nemanjić (known as Stefan Dečanski) and his son Stefan Dušan between 1326–1335. Throughout history and to the present day, the monastery has been the target of attacks by the Ottomans and Bulgarians, followed by the Albanians. The event described in the song probably relates to one of the most famous miracles which ensued following the Ottoman attacks of 1690 and 1692. 5 According to tradition, the Holy King Stefan Dečanski protected the monastery, demonstrating his power in the occurrence of earthquakes, bright light, flame and thunderbolts. To this was added amiracle, when the stone sculpture of alion by St.George’s window fell on the Ottoman mufti, thus foiling an attempt at turning Dečani into amosque (Ninković 1929). OPEN ACCESS
SONJA PETROVIć 177 ‘Моја мајко! што ли ћу ти јако? Ја сам први кавгу заметнуо, Црвописак на душу узео: Куд ће моја душа и тијело?’ (Караџић 1862/1986: 39) ‘Oh, mother! What now lies before me? Iwas first to fan the flame of enmity, And take on the burden of the miserable: What fate awaits my soul and body?’ (Karadžić 1862/1986: No 39) The intention behind Višnjić’s portrait of Karađorđe was to show him in the light of the medieval Nemanjić dynasty, since under their rule (1166–1371) Serbia was an independent state in political, economic and cultural florescence. The First Serbian Uprising of 1804 was abreak from centuries of Ottoman bondage and was intended to establish continuity with the old kingdom. 3. POVERTY IN LYRICAL SONGS AND BALLADS While in epic songs the poverty motif is linked to descriptions of heroic deeds, the state of society and ethical values and customs, lyrical songs and ballads are directed more at the internal world. This is combined with love, family and religious and moralistic themes in order to bring out universal and symbolic cases which may be based on real life experiences. Among characters of the poor, we encounter both generalized examples of people in financial straits and tangible characters such as beggars, the hungry, debtors, the homeless etc. Most frequently the poor overlap with those who have neither parents nor relatives— all the more so, in Serbian, since the words have the same etymological root. Both orphans and the poor are marginalized creatures with special ritual and magical roles ascribed to them. In songs whose theme is society, the poor are usually placed in opposition to the rich. The characters may be presented in different stylistic registers, from serious to playful and ironic. Singers of folk songs rely on their individual memories when introducing real life experiences alongside certain cultural and ethnographic details into their works, they then blend them with imaginary motifs into aseamless whole. The mixture of the realistic and imaginary, as it has been noted, appears as ‘adescriptive report on something which is usually on the same plane but also in separate layers: an ethnographic description, historical facts, lovers’ meetings’ (Milošević-Đorđević 2008: 15). These layers can also include the model of awished-for reality, which is ‘accepted as reality’ in the poetic world or, again, as amodel of ritual reality, which encompasses the mythic time of the ritual, alluded to by the rite, (e.g. the symbolic association of the cosmic marriage in the actual wedding ritual) and the present tense in which the songs are performed (e.g., when participants in awedding, sing songs at certain points of the ceremony). Whether presenting models of realistic, ritual, or desired reality, these songs contain fragments of real experiences— the echoes of memories of daily life, collective experience, or established relations and situations. OPEN ACCESS
178 STUDIA ETHNOLOGICA PRAGENSIA 1/2023 These echoes are determined by the cultural heritage of the entire community and have both ageneral and symbolic nature which enables the songs to be universally recognizable outside the ethnic or language community in which they were sung. The memories in the songs are passed on by means of traditional models, which are repeated and adapted to fit withing the model of the poetic world. 3.1. THE POOR IN LOVE AND WEDDING SONGS Poverty disrupts the life of the individual and is most frequently encountered as an existential obstruction to starting and sustaining afamily; therefore, the songs deal in intimate themes, family disagreements, social status and the rejection of the poor. Acommon poetic theme is the marriage of ayouth to apoor or orphaned girl. The framework of the story is comprised of moral qualities which are respected by the patriarchal community. They are usually portrayed as anegative parallel between apoor girl and arich one, presented as adiscussion between sister and brother on the kind of girl who would be acceptable into the family. The nuances of the variants differ, allowing us to perceive the cultural environment, the value system of the community in which the songs originate and the personal affinities of the singer. ‘Да узмемо много богаташку, Она ће се с богаство големи; Да узмемо много даровиту, Она ће се с дари подголеми; Да узмемо много сиромашку, Она нема су чим да с’ големи!’ (Манојловић 1953: бр. 241) Or: ‘Она че нам стару мајћу да послуша.’ (Јоцић et al. 1979: бр. 146) ‘Ће узнем, Марче, ће узнем, Ће узнем таја сирота,— Сирота ти је лепота, Лепота, Марче, до века!’ (Васиљевић 1950: бр. 250) ‘If we take avery rich girl, She will flaunt her riches If we take avery gifted one, She will be proud of her gifts; If we take apoor girl, She will have nothing to show off with!’ (Manojlović 1953: No 241) Or: ‘She will obey our old mother.’ (Jocić et al. 1979: No 146) OPEN ACCESS
SONJA PETROVIć 185 proponents of ethical and customary norms. They may also be presented as the victims of evil people, when they defend themselves with curses, as in the epic songs. An example highlighting the ethical character of the poor man is illustrated by asong from around Vranje in southern Serbia, sung at the slava (aSerbian feast celebrating the family’s patron saint), with arare motif of the compassionate wedding of agirl with aphysical affliction. While celebrating St.Petka, who is, according to Slavic beliefs the protector of women who honour her7, the Strumali Queen toasts the guests and invites one of them to marry her daughter who has acrippled arm. Of all the queen’s guests, only Pavle, apoor man, accepts and raises his wine glass in atoast: ‘Сви су гости ником поникнали, И у црну земљу погледали. Не поникна сиромашче Павле, не поникна, но јунак повикна: — Чуј овамо, Струмали краљице, ја ће пијем твоју чашу вино, прву чашу с вино трогодишњно, ја ће узнем твоју милу ћеру, твоју ћеру сас руку сакату!’ (Златановић 1994: бр. 190) ‘All the guests looked away, And looked at the black ground, But poor man Pavle did not look away, He did not look away, but called out like ahero: — Listen here, Strumali Queen, Iwill drink your glass of wine, The first glass of three-year-old wine, Iwill take your dear daughter, Your daughter with the crippled arm!’ (Zlatanović 1994: No 190) The previously given examples of epic songs have already shown that saints protect poor men from their enemies in miraculous ways, and the same motif can be seen in Christian ballads and has been placed in an eschatological frame. St.Nicholas, according to Slavic belief, is one of the most revered saints. He holds the keys to Heaven to which he admits people, transports souls from this world to the next, is the patron of cattle, wild animals, agriculture, water, warriors, sailors and fishermen. In apatron saint’s day song from south Serbia, St.Nicholas saves shipwrecks and transports ships across the water— travellers, pupils, monks… He especially protects the poor: ‘Сви се свеци сабираше Свет Никола дом га нема, 7 In folklore St.Petka is associated with the Christian Saint Paraskeva and with the Virgin Mary, but her image also shows remnants of the pre-Christian cult of the Mokosh goddess, as well as the personified figure of Fortune (see Detelić 2010). OPEN ACCESS
186 STUDIA ETHNOLOGICA PRAGENSIA 1/2023 Отишеја на бел Дунав, Да превезе млади ђаци, Свет Николу помолише, Превезе ги, избави ги. Друга лађа калуђери, Свет Николу помолише, Превезе ги, избави ги. Трећа лађа сиротиња, Сиротиња, гола, боса, Свет Николу помолише, Превезе ги, избави ги.’ (Ђорђевић 1958: 643) ‘All the saints came together St. Nicholas is not at home, He has gone to the white Danube, To transport little schoolchildren, They prayed to St.Nicholas, He carried them over and saved them. The second ship was of monks, They prayed to St.Nicholas, He carried them over and saved them. The third ship was of the poor, The poor, the naked and the barefoot, They prayed to St.Nicholas, He carried them over and saved them.’ (Đorđević 1958: 643) Representations of the poor, who are under special divine protection, predominate in Christian ballads. The theme of punishment for sin and visions the damned being tortured, were influenced by the Virgin Mary’s apocryphal Walk Through the Torments. Such songs, which appeared under the sway of the church, had anormative and didactic character and acted as an exemplum. Catalogues of sins and terrifying images of the torments of hell were meant to ensure good religious behaviour and encourage Christian mercy and virtue. Motifs of charity towards the poor are an integral part of the saints teachings. The mother of St.Peter cannot enter heaven because she endowed no religious institutions and ‘she sent away apoor man from her door’ (Karadžić 1898: No 223). Sinners implore St.Peter to raise them out of hell, and he lists their sins: ‘Ви нијесте кључева достојни: Ви гладнога нијесте најели, А жеднога нијесте напили; Гола, боса нијесте обукли, Од гр’јеха се нисте кајали, Те у паклу муку заслужили.’ (Караџић 1898: бр. 224) OPEN ACCESS
SONJA PETROVIć 187 ‘You are not worthy of the keys: You did not feed the poor, And did not give the thirsty to drink; You did not clothe the naked, You did not repent of your sins, And have deserved torture in hell.’ (Karadžić 1898: No 224) The depiction of the torments serves as awarning that alms must be given to the poor sincerely, from the heart. Down in hell, an uncharitable woman swims in alake, trying in vain to reach acrust of bread. To the Virgin Mary’s question of why she has come to this, Elijah the Thunderer explains: ‘Јесте баба Богу сагрешила: Кад је била на ономе свету, Та је баба већимашна била, Од свог срца немала порода, Имала је вуне и кудеље, Сиротиња њојзи долазила, Трудила се, за Бога искала, Она није тела поделити, Већ изнела једну кору леба, Кору леба од петнаест дана, Те је њима била поделила, Па не дели својом десном руком, Веће дели својом левом руком: Што је фајда, што је поделила, Кад је била срцем зажалила?’ (Караџић 1899: бр. 1) ‘Yes the old woman has sinned against God: When she was in the earthly world, This old woman was rich, She had no children born of her heart, She had wool and hemp, The poor would come to her, Begging her in the name of God, She would not share, But brought them out acrust of bread, Acrust of bread fifteen days’ old, This she gave to them, And she did not give with her right hand, But with her left: What is the good of what she shared, When in her heart she regretted it?’ (Karadžić 1899: No 1) OPEN ACCESS
188 STUDIA ETHNOLOGICA PRAGENSIA 1/2023 The motifs of God’s protection of the poor and the punishment of sinners who did them harm become especially dramatic in conjunction with motifs surrounding violations of the customary code. In aballad from southern Serbia about agreat sinner, he is condemned for transgressions of perjury and failing to respect the duties of agodparent, both of which are strictly sanctioned in traditional culture. Đurđe Daničić is asked to be the godfather to ‘an extremely poor woman’ and a‘rich Vlach woman”, and to christen the son of the former and the daughter of the latter. The rich woman bribes Đurđe to switch the children at the christening and give her the male child. When the poor woman realises what has happened, she curses Đurđe: ‘Цвили, пишти, љута сиротинка, Цвили, пишти, и љуто ме куне: Еј да бог да мој крстени куме, Из руку ти семе не никнуло, У трле ти стадо не блејало, Уз колено чедо не плакало, Што промени дете на крштењу?’ (Димитријевић 1988: бр. 31, стр. 42) ‘This woman, exceeding poor, whines and whimpers, Whines, whimpers and curses me sorely: God grant, godfather mine, That seed never sprout from your hands, May there be no cattle bleating in your pen, May there be no crying babe upon your knee, Why did you exchange the child at the christening?’ (Dimitrijević 1988: No 31, p.42) Đurđe, however, not only does not repent of his sin, but commits an even greater one. He perjures himself, swearing that his only son may turn into alamb and he himself eat it, if he is not telling the truth, thus invoking upon himself the wrath of God. His false oath comes true in the most horrible way and the poor woman’s curse, that he be left without offspring, comes true. 3.3. POVERTy AS APART OF DAILy LIFE Folk singers include many details from daily life into their poetic world, so that the various forms of poverty such as deprivation, misfortune, the consequence of wicked or deviant behaviour, debts etc., are sung about in arealistic way. They may be from personal experience, or perceived or deducted from observing social circumstances. Realistic details make the songs colourful and convincing, and the characters familiar and real. Songs with first-hand descriptions of poverty feature strong emotions and have atone of lamentation: ‘Је л’ још коме ко што срцу моме? У мене је земља иловача, OPEN ACCESS
SONJA PETROVIć 189 У мене су дрва јасикова, У мене је љута сиротиња!’ (Филиповић 1949: 244) ‘Is there another with aheart like mine? My land is loam, My firewood aspen, Iam desolately poor!’ (Filipović 1949: 244) Reactions to poverty, transfused into oral poetry, describe abroad arch from helplessness to anger. We encounter aquiet tragedy, due to an inability to change the situation, in aballad from eastern Serbia. Two girlfriends, married on opposite sides of the world, each experience adifferent fate. While the first girl informs her mother that she is living acarefree life: ‘Ieat flatbread, Ispin silk / Iembroider silver, Iwear gold’ („сомун једем, свилу предем / срму везем, злато носим“), the second one says: ‘Come to me, dear mother, / to see how Ilive: / Icarry abag, Ibeg for bread!’ („Дојди мене, мила нано, / ти да видиш како живим: / торбу носим, леба просим!“) (Rajković 1998: 27). By opposing the letters of the two girlfriends, the singer instils pity not only for the miserable fate of the second girl, but also for the fate of her mother, who has to confront the unhappiness of her child. The collision between youthful vitality and the prudence of maturity is encountered in asong from Vranje, in which afragile girl, slim as aswitch of brushwood, dances defiantly to express her contempt for her own impoverishment. Angry at being warned not to dance the kolo too energetically so that she may save her shoes, since there is no money for new ones, she does the opposite and dances violently: ‘Илинче, шибљинче, не си шибај оро, спрема мене оро, љуто, ем срдито, што ву синоћ реко: — Поспарај кондурке, ми смо сиромаси, ми паре немамо, друге да купимо.’ (Златановић 1994: бр. 452) ‘Ilinče, little brushwood wand, Do not dance the kolo too fast, Towards me the kolo, Angrily, and forcefully, As Itold you last night: Save your shoes, We are poor people, We have no money, To buy others.’ (Zlatanović 1994: No 452) OPEN ACCESS
190 STUDIA ETHNOLOGICA PRAGENSIA 1/2023 Irony and ridicule, in reaction to poverty, are though to come from personal experience, as aform of psychological defence. Family misfortunes are accepted as part of daily life and looked on ironically when vice is exposed to the taunts of society. Derisive songs of local character name the culprits (spendthrifts, gamblers, debtors) whose irresponsible behaviour has led to victims in their own family: ‘Чије је оно луче Што кроз прозор гуче? Оно је нашег чича-Паје Што земљу и кућу продаје. Чији су оно малишани Што иду боси подерани? Оно су нашег чича-Неце Што воли на картама кеце.’ (Шкарић 1939: 201, бр. 7) ‘Што ћу тужан, кад сам много дужан: По сто-двеста на стотину места.’ (Шкарић 1939: 172, бр. 26) ‘Whose is that beauty Cooing through the window? She belongs to our uncle Paja, Who is selling his land and house. Whose are those little ones, Going around barefoot and in rags? They belong to our uncle Neca Who likes aces in his hand of cards.’ (Škarić 1939: 201, No 7) ‘Iam sad, because Iowe so much: Ahundred-two hundred in ahundred places.’ (Škarić 1939: 172, No 26) Ballads on family misfortunes, caused by debts and penury, are melancholic and arouse pity because they evoke emotions toward life’s simplicity, as for instance in the song about ayoung bride who is forced to borrow bread and salt in order to be able to send her brother off in afitting manner (Yastrebov 1889: 46). The comparison of the rich and poor is based on observations of the immediate environment. The poor are recognisable everywhere and there is an ironic edge even when the main motif is love. Social inequality, however, is taken for granted as the usual state of affairs: ‘Чија врула у слатине свира? То је врула сиромашка сина; А газдинска засвирити неће: Газда плати, па га свирац прати.’ (Телечки 1863: бр. 178) OPEN ACCESS
SONJA PETROVIć 191 ‘Whose flute is playing by the salt spring? That is the flute of apoor son; But the landowner’s flute will not play: The landowner pays, and the player follows him.’ (Telečki 1863: No 178) The various motifs associated with the poor in Serbian and South-Slav oral poetry are permeated to agreater or lesser extent by the experiences of real-life memories, social circumstances and the historical past. The poetic material shows abroad pallet of memories, from the local and autobiographical, to the cultural. Fragments of memory are atomized and fragmentary, transposed or sifted through different formulae and thematic patterns and adapted to the ideas and stylistic registers of the corresponding genres. Thus, compressed and modified, memories of the poor are important not so much for their closeness to real historical and social circumstances, but above all for their emotional and experiential strength, lively imagery, links to ritual reality, ethical messages and their ability to relate an authentic experience which is felt to be real, notwithstanding the distance in time and space from the event and the unreliability of memory. The diverse examples of songs about poverty presented in this paper bear testimony to ‘pluralism of memory through the different memories of different social groups’ (Sládeček, Vasiljević 2015: 17). The songs may be seen as signposts, pointing the way to an insight on the multiple layers of traditional culture, or as akaleidoscope, where different memories of human experience are reconstructed, intertwined and crafted into astory of identity. WORKS CITED Bartlett, F.C.1932. Remembering: AStudy in Experimental and Social Psychology. London: Cambridge University Press. Detelić, M. 2010. ‘St Paraskeve in the Balkan Context”. Folklore 121(1): 94–105. Devrnja Zimmerman, Z. 1986. Serbian Folk Poetry: Ancient Legends, Romantic Songs. Columbus, Ohio : Kosovo Pub. Co. Hörmann, K. 1888. Narodne pjesme Muhamedovaca uBosni iHercegovini, knj. 1. Sarajevo: Zemaljska štamparija. Low, D.H. 1922. The Ballads of Marko Kraljević. Cambridge University Press. Mihaljčić, R.1989. The Battle of Kosovo in History and in Popular Tradition. Belgrade: BIGZ. Pavićević, M.M. 1938. Ženske narodne pjesme iz Crne Gore. Zagreb: Etnografski muzej uZagrebu. Pešić, R., N.Milošević-Đorđević 1984. Narodna književnost. Beograd: Vuk Karadžić. Putilov, B.N.1990. ‘Savremeni problemi istorijske poetike folklora usvetlu istorijskotipološke teorije”. Prev. D.Aranitović. Treći program Radio-Beograda 86–87: 237–288. Rubin, D.C.1995. Memory in Oral Traditions: The Cognitive Psychology of Epic, Ballads, and Counting-Out Rhymes. New York, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Sládeček, M., J.Vasiljević 2015. ‘Problematičnost pojma „kolektivno sećanje“”. Pp.7–25 in M.Sládeček, J.Vasiljević, T.Petrović Trifunović (eds.). Kolektivno sećanje ipolitike pamćenja. Beograd: ZUNS, IFDT. Vukanović, T.P.1986. Srbi na Kosovu II. Vranje: Nova Jugoslavija. Васиљевић, М.А. 1950. Југословенски музички фолклор. Књ. 1. Народне мелодије које се певају на Космету. Београд: Просвета. = Vasiljević, M.A. 1950. Jugoslovenski muzički folklor. Knj.1. OPEN ACCESS
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194 STUDIA ETHNOLOGICA PRAGENSIA 1/2023 LIV, Drugo odeljenje, Život iobičaji narodni 24, Beograd: SKA. Ястребов, И.С. 1889. Обычаи и пѣсни Турецкихъ Сербовъ. Второе изданіе, дополненное ихъ прозою. С.-Петербургъ: Типографія В.С.Балашева. = Iastrebov, I.S.1889. Obychai ipěsni Turetskikh’ Serbov”. Vtoroe izdanіe, dopolnennoe ikh’ prozoiu. S.-Peterburg”: Tipografіia V.S.Balasheva. Sonja Petrović has PhD in Serbian literature— Folk literature, University of Belgrade, and teaches at the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Philology, and at the University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Music. Her research is in the fields of Serbian and South Slav folklore and oral tradition, relationships between folklore, literature and history, fieldwork in folklore studies, oral history. Authored books: The Battle of Kosovo in Folk Poetry, and Poverty in Serbian Folklore Tradition from the 13th to 19th Century. AContribution to the Study of Folk Culture. Contact: [email protected], sonja.petro[email protected] OPEN ACCESS