Theatre
Јазавац пред судом
Not translated into English
Petar Kočić · 1904
Opening lines
Давид
Добар дан, главати, царски господини!…
Good day, big chiefs, imperial gentlemen!…
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from sr.wikisource.org
Synopsis
David Štrbac, a peasant from the Bosnian Krajina, presents himself at the imperial court with a sack. In it is a badger, which he accuses of having ravaged his cornfield and which he intends to see tried in due form. The two officials who receive him, seeing this little man as dry as a stick, think they have found some amusement. But David knows the customs, praises at every turn the goodness of the emperor and his administration, and it is he who leads the conversation.
Context
The author first wrote the text as a story, in Vienna, in 1903, and tried to have it published in Belgrade; read before the society of Serbian students in Vienna, it made those who did not share his ideas uncomfortable, since it also targeted the notables of the movement for the religious and school autonomy of the Serbs of Bosnia. He made a one-act play from it. The text gave rise in 1978 to the first opera of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Vlado Milošević, and to a daily comic strip published from 1973 to 2007.
Who it is for
One act, made almost entirely of the peasant's replies to two officials. It helps to know that Austria-Hungary had occupied Bosnia since 1878.
Prizes and reception
Its author's most famous text, studied at secondary school and often restaged, most recently at the Belgrade Drama Theatre in 2023; adapted for the screen in 2019.