Post by Patrinos on Dec 23, 2010 10:16:09 GMT -5
Reading a thesis about Serbs’ view of Greeks I found several very interesting parts, one is the comedy by Jovan Sterija Popović, “Kir Janja ili Tvrdica”, which is about a stereotypical Greek living in Serbia, where and when Greeks because of mostly being traders, were seen as rich but always complaining about money, speaking broken Serbian with plenty of Greek words in it, speaking about Platos and Aristotles without knowing much of them…etc etc. This stereotypical Greek was expressed by the protagonist of this comedy, “Kir Janja”-“Mr John”.
I’ll translate below one of the dialogues between Kir Janja and his Serbian wife, Juca, and I’ll translate the broken Serbian of kir Janja in broken english:
JUCA: Yes, give me half flori to buy the chords.
JANJA: What chords?
JUCA: For Katica’s guitar.(Katica is their daughter)
JANJA: Kirie imon! How many grosi haven’t I given for this cursed gitar!
JUCA: The guitar teacher had to omit five hours of lesson because of these chords.
JANJA: Let the kerveros take your gitar, to take your fashion and smartness!! Aiii, tihelaj(my note:he means tihere=lucky, ironically) Janja, no home is buy this way! Don’t talk to me anymore! No money!
JUCA: And what about my hat?
JANJA (frightened): What hat??
JUCA: I think its time you to buy me a new hat…
JANJA:U, hu, hu! Pa , pa, pa!! News hat!!!! Lovely lady, kir Janja…hat???
JUCA: I used to wear a hat when I was living with my mum.
JANJA: Go to your mother, to buy it for you.
JUCA: I thought you were my husband…
JANJA: Not have enough fustan/dress?Want long, tall? Oh woman with big hair! Mori, do you know the famous Diogenis was living in a barel?
JUCA: Of course, since he was crazy.
JANJA: What say?? Crazy??Greece famous philosopho crazy?? Brainless, unwise!! Mori, you lose your head if you say this words while being in Moreas. Filosofo, mori famous Greece Diogenis lived in an barrel and walked without boots.
JUCA: Maybe he didn’t have money to buy them.
JANJA: O, hondrokefalos(dunderhead)! Mori, famous greece king Alexandr, begged him to give him some ducats, big as your forehead, the filosofo don’t want, the king begs him, the filosofo not want. Ej de de!! (Gumari, why didn’t you take all these money to give it to me to make a fortune( Janja to Diogenis))
JUCA: This Diogenis, might be like that, because he was not married, and he could do anything he wanted. I don’t want the neighborhood to laugh at me, but to buy me a hat.
JANJA: Oh oh!!Want you still fight with me?
The other interesting part is the travels and narration by Dositej Obradovic (Животь и приключенїя Димитрїя Обрадовича, нареченогα у калућерству Досїѳеа: нимь истимъ списать и издать), 1765-79 and 1779-1780.
Some interesting parts:
“There was at that time in Cakovo a gero-Dimas(old Demetrios), a Greek. Every matins, every esperino and every rite couldn’t be done without him, and some times the priest of the church had to come to the church in days that he didn’t have to just and only for him(gero-Dimas). Cold, hot, mud, rain, nothing could stop him from be there according to the canons, and many times being there long before the church opens, and he stood at the door and yelled, slammed in greek because the priest were late. These are the first words I learnt from him : “Katarameni papades pu katonde metismeni”(Cursed priests who sit drunk). I think that this time all the priest would feel good if he died more than having their rulers…so much they got bored with him. “Evlogison Pnevma”, “Fos ilaron”, “Axioson Kirie”, “Nin apolieis” all these read in greek, and when it happened once in a while a protopresviter or a priest to take his ecclesiastical books while reading he angrily got out of the church like nothing was going on inside… Indeed if he didn’t expect to read all the esperin himself, at lest the “Nin apoliis ton dulon su despota” he wouldn’t come there. Listening everyday this gero-Dimas, little by little, my ears got used to the greek reading. My curiosity since childhood for anything I don’t know, made me to start learning Greek.
And by lucky- or, for me unlucky, as soon it will reavealed-, chance, I’ve heard that a daskal came to the local Greeks to teach their children. The next day I took with me an ecclesiastical book, and among all the little Greek kids I went to the Greek daskal to learn Greek. My uncle Nikola wan’t at home, and my aunt Marica didn’t really care about my education, she was glad to have me go to school whatever it was. And for me this day was like I was in heaven. It was like my soul being in a student of Pythagoras thousands of years ago, and like (my soul) knew the golden and sweet language of Socrates and Homer, and like forgetting it after drinking the water of lethe and suddenly again like we’ve met again with the honeyful sweetness of this language and with my heart and soul on fire started to learn it. That’s how I felt while looking the greek letters and pronouncing: alpha, bita, gama, delta, epsilon etc. …”
In a letter:
"My dear,
What I would like to describe in this letter that follows, is so important for me so its difficult to present it to you exactly how I feel it. All the other, I mean: how I left from Banato and then from Hopovo, how I travelled from place to place and return right after and then travel again, it seems for me like everyday things that happens to every man simple and randomly. But when I came to Smyrna, which I’ve never thought neither dreamed, even if I planned to stay two three days, I stayed three years(and if the last Russo-turc war hadn’t occurred I could stay more three), and I met this divine man, the new Greek Sokrates, daskal Ierotheos, who welcomed me gently and I was lucky receiving his kindness and love from his teachings…..
…
“After the Fall of Constantinoupolis, when all the educated Greeks scattered in Italy and France and started to enlighten these countries, it almost have the greek language and education vanished from their homeland, Greece. In the Venetian controlled islands, you could find some literate men who could teach Greek, but when the Turks occupied Crete, Cyprus and Moreas from the Venetians, you could hardly find any(teacher) there. After that if*greek wanted to learn his ancient language he should go to Italy, Sicely or France, or in small islands like Zakynthos and Kephalonia which belong to Venetians even today….”
“… When I first came to the beautiful Smyrna, I knew few greek, which I’ve learned in Corfu, and some in Moreas and in Chilandar, and so I could speak as it was needed to have not only the small kids to laugh at me but also the men, but I laughed at them too, questioning why they laugh so much. Everybody teached me(greek) and corrected me. In a such pleasant environment in 4-5 months I could speak very good, and since I used the common language the ancient Greek were easier for me. The psalter and all the ecclesiastical books were understandable from me, since I knew them in Slavic, and at the end of the first year I had a better level from the others, who have started lessons three four years before me. After that the little kids stopped questioning me like before :”Hey papa, who made you papa, since you didn’t know letters?”. In the school about thirty students also lived and eat there from every place of Greece and the islands, and many came and many left in these three years, so I had the opportunity to know the characteristics of the Greeks from all the places. All the students lived in kindness and love, and nobody had any reason to get angry with another. Because the daskal himself, because he was like an angel and for all like a father, we continued to get along with kindness, and there wasn’t any better way to get along from studiousness and kindness.
The lovely Greek youth is the most capable and willing to learn from any other people of the world. By nature sharp and piercing, and when their youth is heading towards goodness there isn’t bigger goodness and diligence from theirs, but for the same reason if they turn towards foxiness, one has to be very careful with them, because when sharpness turn towards foxiness, it becomes a big evil, but the evil, the foxy and the crude for Ierotheos didn’t have place not even in the port….”
“… My roommate, pap Anthimos Athenean, was a priest, but when he was young his wife died. This man if he wasn’t consetrated in studying he would be surely dead. Twelve years after her death, every time he said “my wife” he started to cry like it was yesterday. Agapios the Peloponnesian, Kyprianos the Cretan, Maximos the Larisaios, I’ve never looked at them without thinking : “ Such men, o God, give to Christendom”. …“
“…And when Greeks can achieve all that under crude pressure, what could anyone expect from them when God gives and they free themselves?...”
“After the end of the third year of my happy staying there(in Smyrna) rumours started to spread about Turkey declaring war to Russia. Many then called me “papa-Servos” and many also “papa-Moshovitis”, for them it was the same thing.”
To Sesvengen, 1788"
I’ll translate below one of the dialogues between Kir Janja and his Serbian wife, Juca, and I’ll translate the broken Serbian of kir Janja in broken english:
JUCA: Yes, give me half flori to buy the chords.
JANJA: What chords?
JUCA: For Katica’s guitar.(Katica is their daughter)
JANJA: Kirie imon! How many grosi haven’t I given for this cursed gitar!
JUCA: The guitar teacher had to omit five hours of lesson because of these chords.
JANJA: Let the kerveros take your gitar, to take your fashion and smartness!! Aiii, tihelaj(my note:he means tihere=lucky, ironically) Janja, no home is buy this way! Don’t talk to me anymore! No money!
JUCA: And what about my hat?
JANJA (frightened): What hat??
JUCA: I think its time you to buy me a new hat…
JANJA:U, hu, hu! Pa , pa, pa!! News hat!!!! Lovely lady, kir Janja…hat???
JUCA: I used to wear a hat when I was living with my mum.
JANJA: Go to your mother, to buy it for you.
JUCA: I thought you were my husband…
JANJA: Not have enough fustan/dress?Want long, tall? Oh woman with big hair! Mori, do you know the famous Diogenis was living in a barel?
JUCA: Of course, since he was crazy.
JANJA: What say?? Crazy??Greece famous philosopho crazy?? Brainless, unwise!! Mori, you lose your head if you say this words while being in Moreas. Filosofo, mori famous Greece Diogenis lived in an barrel and walked without boots.
JUCA: Maybe he didn’t have money to buy them.
JANJA: O, hondrokefalos(dunderhead)! Mori, famous greece king Alexandr, begged him to give him some ducats, big as your forehead, the filosofo don’t want, the king begs him, the filosofo not want. Ej de de!! (Gumari, why didn’t you take all these money to give it to me to make a fortune( Janja to Diogenis))
JUCA: This Diogenis, might be like that, because he was not married, and he could do anything he wanted. I don’t want the neighborhood to laugh at me, but to buy me a hat.
JANJA: Oh oh!!Want you still fight with me?
The other interesting part is the travels and narration by Dositej Obradovic (Животь и приключенїя Димитрїя Обрадовича, нареченогα у калућерству Досїѳеа: нимь истимъ списать и издать), 1765-79 and 1779-1780.
Some interesting parts:
“There was at that time in Cakovo a gero-Dimas(old Demetrios), a Greek. Every matins, every esperino and every rite couldn’t be done without him, and some times the priest of the church had to come to the church in days that he didn’t have to just and only for him(gero-Dimas). Cold, hot, mud, rain, nothing could stop him from be there according to the canons, and many times being there long before the church opens, and he stood at the door and yelled, slammed in greek because the priest were late. These are the first words I learnt from him : “Katarameni papades pu katonde metismeni”(Cursed priests who sit drunk). I think that this time all the priest would feel good if he died more than having their rulers…so much they got bored with him. “Evlogison Pnevma”, “Fos ilaron”, “Axioson Kirie”, “Nin apolieis” all these read in greek, and when it happened once in a while a protopresviter or a priest to take his ecclesiastical books while reading he angrily got out of the church like nothing was going on inside… Indeed if he didn’t expect to read all the esperin himself, at lest the “Nin apoliis ton dulon su despota” he wouldn’t come there. Listening everyday this gero-Dimas, little by little, my ears got used to the greek reading. My curiosity since childhood for anything I don’t know, made me to start learning Greek.
And by lucky- or, for me unlucky, as soon it will reavealed-, chance, I’ve heard that a daskal came to the local Greeks to teach their children. The next day I took with me an ecclesiastical book, and among all the little Greek kids I went to the Greek daskal to learn Greek. My uncle Nikola wan’t at home, and my aunt Marica didn’t really care about my education, she was glad to have me go to school whatever it was. And for me this day was like I was in heaven. It was like my soul being in a student of Pythagoras thousands of years ago, and like (my soul) knew the golden and sweet language of Socrates and Homer, and like forgetting it after drinking the water of lethe and suddenly again like we’ve met again with the honeyful sweetness of this language and with my heart and soul on fire started to learn it. That’s how I felt while looking the greek letters and pronouncing: alpha, bita, gama, delta, epsilon etc. …”
In a letter:
"My dear,
What I would like to describe in this letter that follows, is so important for me so its difficult to present it to you exactly how I feel it. All the other, I mean: how I left from Banato and then from Hopovo, how I travelled from place to place and return right after and then travel again, it seems for me like everyday things that happens to every man simple and randomly. But when I came to Smyrna, which I’ve never thought neither dreamed, even if I planned to stay two three days, I stayed three years(and if the last Russo-turc war hadn’t occurred I could stay more three), and I met this divine man, the new Greek Sokrates, daskal Ierotheos, who welcomed me gently and I was lucky receiving his kindness and love from his teachings…..
…
“After the Fall of Constantinoupolis, when all the educated Greeks scattered in Italy and France and started to enlighten these countries, it almost have the greek language and education vanished from their homeland, Greece. In the Venetian controlled islands, you could find some literate men who could teach Greek, but when the Turks occupied Crete, Cyprus and Moreas from the Venetians, you could hardly find any(teacher) there. After that if*greek wanted to learn his ancient language he should go to Italy, Sicely or France, or in small islands like Zakynthos and Kephalonia which belong to Venetians even today….”
“… When I first came to the beautiful Smyrna, I knew few greek, which I’ve learned in Corfu, and some in Moreas and in Chilandar, and so I could speak as it was needed to have not only the small kids to laugh at me but also the men, but I laughed at them too, questioning why they laugh so much. Everybody teached me(greek) and corrected me. In a such pleasant environment in 4-5 months I could speak very good, and since I used the common language the ancient Greek were easier for me. The psalter and all the ecclesiastical books were understandable from me, since I knew them in Slavic, and at the end of the first year I had a better level from the others, who have started lessons three four years before me. After that the little kids stopped questioning me like before :”Hey papa, who made you papa, since you didn’t know letters?”. In the school about thirty students also lived and eat there from every place of Greece and the islands, and many came and many left in these three years, so I had the opportunity to know the characteristics of the Greeks from all the places. All the students lived in kindness and love, and nobody had any reason to get angry with another. Because the daskal himself, because he was like an angel and for all like a father, we continued to get along with kindness, and there wasn’t any better way to get along from studiousness and kindness.
The lovely Greek youth is the most capable and willing to learn from any other people of the world. By nature sharp and piercing, and when their youth is heading towards goodness there isn’t bigger goodness and diligence from theirs, but for the same reason if they turn towards foxiness, one has to be very careful with them, because when sharpness turn towards foxiness, it becomes a big evil, but the evil, the foxy and the crude for Ierotheos didn’t have place not even in the port….”
“… My roommate, pap Anthimos Athenean, was a priest, but when he was young his wife died. This man if he wasn’t consetrated in studying he would be surely dead. Twelve years after her death, every time he said “my wife” he started to cry like it was yesterday. Agapios the Peloponnesian, Kyprianos the Cretan, Maximos the Larisaios, I’ve never looked at them without thinking : “ Such men, o God, give to Christendom”. …“
“…And when Greeks can achieve all that under crude pressure, what could anyone expect from them when God gives and they free themselves?...”
“After the end of the third year of my happy staying there(in Smyrna) rumours started to spread about Turkey declaring war to Russia. Many then called me “papa-Servos” and many also “papa-Moshovitis”, for them it was the same thing.”
To Sesvengen, 1788"