Poetry
Песме I
Not translated into English
Branko Radičević · 1847
Synopsis
Short poems of youth and love, and two long poems. In the first, schoolboys from Karlovci dance one last round and bid farewell to their school, to the town and to the hills of Fruška Gora, singing of the freedom of their people. The second is a satirical allegory, a journey in the course of which the poet ridicules the opponents of the language of the people and of Vuk Karadžić's reform.
Context
The collection came out in the last months of 1847 from the printing house of the Armenian monastery in Vienna. It appeared the same year as Karadžić's translation of the New Testament, Đura Daničić's pamphlet for the Serbian language and Njegoš's great poem, and these publications are held to be those that brought about the triumph of the language reform. Daničić saw in it the model of what Serbian poetry was henceforth to be. Two other collections followed, in 1851 and then in 1862, the latter drawn by the poet's father from his papers.
Who it is for
A slim volume of verse, including two long poems. It is worth knowing that Serbian men of letters were then disputing which spoken form should be used, and that everyday life was thought unworthy of verse.
Prizes and reception
The first collection of poetry by a named author written in the Serbian vernacular. In 1883, the poet's remains were carried to Stražilovo, as one of his poems requested.