The Kosovo song
On 28 June 1389, a Serbian army led by Prince Lazar fought an Ottoman army led by Sultan Murad I at Field. Both Lazar and Murad died there. Serbia fell completely under Ottoman rule in 1459.
For centuries afterwards, Serbian singers told the story in songs, chanted to the one-stringed . The songs were collected and printed in the 1800s. In the song below, Lazar is offered a choice before the battle. Read it as you read Henry, Brooke and Pearse: what is the hero offered, and what does it cost?
How to read it: the lines have a strong, regular beat because they were sung. Read them aloud. Tap any underlined word.
dotted = word · solid = reference
From Jerusalem, the holy city, Flying came a swift grey bird, a , And he carried in his beak a . But behold and see! ’Tis not a falcon, ’Tis the holy man of God, , And he does not bear with him a swallow, But a letter from God’s Holy Mother. Lo, he bears the letter to , Drops it on the Tsar’s knees from the heavens, And thus speaks the letter to the :
“Tsar Lazar, thou Prince of noble , What wilt thou now choose to be thy kingdom? Say, dost thou desire a heav’nly kingdom, Or dost thou prefer an earthly kingdom? If thou should’st now choose an earthly kingdom, Knights may swords and saddle horses, Tighten and ride to battle— You will charge the Turks and crush their army! But if thou prefer a heav’nly kingdom, Build thyself a church upon Kossovo, Let not the foundations be of marble, Let them be of and of … And to all thy warriors and their leaders Thou shalt give the and orders, For thine army shall most surely perish, And thou too, shalt perish with thine army.”
When the Tsar had read the holy letter, he, and ponder’d in this manner: “Mighty God, what now shall this my choice be! Shall I choose to have a heav’nly kingdom? Shall I choose to have an earthly kingdom? If I now should choose an earthly kingdom, Lo, an earthly kingdom is but , But God’s kingdom shall for ever.” And the Tsar he chose a heav’nly kingdom,
[The song continues for 58 more lines. Lazar builds the church and gives his army communion. In the battle, his commanders fall one after another, each after killing many of the enemy. One lord, Vuk Branković, betrays Lazar and leaves the field with his men. Lazar and his whole army are killed. The song ends by saying that everything was done with honour and holiness, and that God’s will was fulfilled.]
A poet who sang it
(born 1945) was a psychiatrist in Sarajevo and a published poet. He also played the gusle and sang the old epic songs. From 1992 to 1996 he was president of Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb republic, during the war in Bosnia (1992–1995), fought between Bosnian Serb, Bosnian government and Bosnian Croat forces. In 2016 the in The Hague convicted him of , crimes against humanity and war crimes; in 2019 his sentence was increased on appeal to life in prison.
The town burns like a piece of incense In the smoke rumbles our consciousness. Empty suits slide down the town. Red is the stone that dies, built into a house. The Plague!
Published in 1971, 21 years before the war. After the siege of Sarajevo began in 1992, some readers took the poem as a prophecy.
Study questions
Your answers save in this browser. Quote line numbers. Question 6 is the final writing task for the whole lesson.
How to write question 6
- Claim: one sentence that answers the question directly.
- Evidence 1: one quotation from the Kosovo song, with the line number, and what it shows.
- Evidence 2: one quotation from Parts 1–4, with the line number.
- The other side: one sentence that admits the strongest point against you.
- Conclusion: why your claim still stands.
Length: 200–300 words. Use “reason” and “speech” in the sense of this lesson.