OH MARY DON'T YOU WEEP ...

I remember the day it was time for me to report to the U.S. Air Force induction depot.  That was so very long ago.  I knew there was quite a trip ahead of me to the training base so I had some reading material in my pockets:  a New Testament, and "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin. 

"The Fire Next Time" is really two essays - "My Dungeon Shook — Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation," and "Down At The Cross — Letter from a Region of My Mind."  In the book, Baldwin says “A vast amount of the Negro problem is the white man’s profound desire not to be judged by those who are not white, not to be seen as he is."  That rang a bell with me.

We've talked before about how it could be dangerous in those days to admit one's Croatian ancestry.  I could easily substitute in my head the words "A vast amount of the Croat problem is the anglo's profound desire not to be judged by those who are not anglo, not to be seen as he is."  Hmmmm, different but similar life experiences. 

Baldwin also said "We are controlled by our confusion, far more than we know, and the American dream has therefore become something much more closely resembling a nightmare, on the private, domestic, and international levels. Privately, we cannot stand our lives and dare not examine them; domestically, we take no responsibility for (and no pride in) what goes on in our country; and, internationally for many millions of people, we are an unmitigated disaster."  I didn't see that as a "Black" issue, but a wide spread issue becoming woven deep into the fabric of the country.

I was almost finished with the book when the bus arrived at the training facility.  The sergeant was Black and he was so very courteous at first.  "Empty your pockets please gentlemen," the man said, so I did.  Everyone did.  Men who had brought pocket knives and such were promptly relieved of those things.  The sergeant stopped and looked at my New Testament and my James Baldwin book and a frown furrowed on his forehead.  He looked me up and down.  "I'll have to take these," he said, "You are a thinker and that's not allowed here," and that was that. 

A line from the song "Oh Mary don't you weep, don't you mourn" was the source of the title of Baldwin's book.

God gave Moses the rainbow sign
No more water, but fire next time.
The title of his first essay came from another couplet
The very moment I thought I was lost
The dungeon shook and the chains fell off.

I was familiar with the song because me and my friends we sang the song in the fields and in the churches.  The choir at Riverside Baptist over on Wheeler Avenue in Houston, Texas could really belt it out all swaying with the music and everything.

Oh Mary, don't you weep, don't you mourn
Oh Mary, don't you weep, don't you mourn.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

If I could I surely would
Stand on the rock where Moses stood.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Mary wore three links of chain
Every link was Jesus' name.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

One of these nights about 12 o' clock
This old worlds going to reel and rock.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

God told Moses what to do
To lead the Hebrew children through.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Moses stood on the red sea shore
Smotin' the water with a two by four.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

God gave Moses the rainbow sign
No more water, but fire next time.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Mary wore three links of chain
Every link was Jesus name.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

The very moment I thought I was lost
The dungeon shook and the chains fell off.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Anyway, "The Fire Next Time" came to mind today when the Texas Forest Service revealed this morning that as of today 3.8 million acres of land had been burned so far in the fires in Texas this year.  Let's work out what this means.  Montenegro has about 3.4 million acres.  More land in Texas has been burned away than a whole country.  Croatia has a little over 13 million acres so a space equivalent to thirty six per cent of Croatia has been burned away in Texas.  That's about thirteen percent of Serbia including the Vojvodinja which has been burned away.  If you just look at the Vojvodinija by itself that's about 60 percent of that place up in smoke and its a space about half the size of Bosnia or Kosovo more or less.  Got the picture?  The fires in Texas have burned vast areas this year.Pick a Balkan country - any Balkan country and fires of this magnitude would have be devastating.     Aren't you glad I didn't pick Cheech and Chong's "Up in Smoke" to illustrate my thoughts and feelings about all this?  Here is some one's version of "Mary Don't You Weep"

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

30  Rujan 2011

POLETELA SOJKA PTICA

Remembering our Vasilija ...

Vasilija Radojčić.  21 April 1936 - 25 September 2011. Buried in New Cemetary in Belgrade at 11:30 Wednesday 28 September 2011.  Predeceased by her husband Milan Đorđević of many years, Vasilija  is survived by her daughter Mirjana.  Valsilija sang not only Serbian traditional music but also the traditional songs of Makedonija and Bosnija. Sevdelinka will be poorer in the absence of her vocal talents. 

In all of her fifty-plus year career, Vasilija never sang in a bar. About this she said "I guess the songs I sang were not for ... banging glasses. Maybe they are afraid and to invite me because I was always represented in the media as a lady, a married woman ..."  Vasilija, your voice will be with us always.

Her first record was "Poletela sojka ptica."

tekst:

Poletela sojka ptica prije vremena,
poletela sojka ptica prije vremena,
aj, gigano, prije vremena.

Pitale je drugarice: Zašto ne pevaš?
Pitale je drugarice: Zašto ne pevaš,
aj, gigano, zašto ne pevaš?

Pevala bi i igrala bi, al' mi car ne da,
pevala bi i igrala bi, al' mi car ne da,
aj, gigano, al' mi car ne da.

Imala sam jedno drago vrlo daleko,
imala sam jedno drago vrlo daleko,
aj, gigano, vrlo daleko.

Pisaću mu tužno pismo, tužno, žalosno,
pisaću mu tužno pismo, tužno žalosno,
aj, gigano, tužno žalosno.

Approximate english translation:
Sojka birds flew ahead of time,
Sojka birds flew ahead of time,
aj, Gigan, ahead of time.
 
Asked her companion: Why do not you sing?
Asked her companion: Why can you not sing,
aj, Gigan, why you not sing?
 
Sang and played to be, But my emporor is not that
sang and played to be, But my emporor is not that
aj, Gigan, But we is not that emporor.
 
I had one very much happy,
I had one very much happy,
aj, Gigan, very far.
 
Writing a letter to him sad, sad, sad,
Writing to him letter sad, sad sad,
aj, Gigan, sad sad.


POLETELA SOJKA PTICA

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

29 Rujan 2011

Then there came ...

"Then there came along some Yids, and when they saw the fire, came up to the children and asked them what they were doing there and whether there was anyone with them, and when the children had told them what and how, the Yids told them to go along with them, saying that they would have a fine time at their house. The children agreed and went with the Yids, and the Yids took them to their house. They didn't have anyone else at home, only their mother, and when they came home, they shut the boy up to get fat and made the girl a servant to their mother. One day, when the boy had been well fed and was fat, the Yids went out on some errand and told their mother to roast him, and then when they came home in the evening from their work, they would eat him..." 

We hear this story from Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic in "Civuti", Srpske narodne pripovjetke, ("Yids" in "Serbian folk tales") 1853.

From "O jevrejskom pitanju u Srbiji" ("The Jewish question in Serbia") which Nikola Jovanovic wrote back in August 1878 we hear:   "...Europe has forced the Hebrews on us for us to grant them in our country all the rights that we have acquired and enjoy. But that the Jews or any non-Serb elements should have the same right as those native to Serbia, we challenge and deny."  Ten to twelve percent of the population of the territory of Serbia were Croats, who, in other words, as non-Serbian elements, along with Jews and Roma and Vlaks and whoever else was there, were to have no rights according to this fellow.

At the opening of the twentieth century, Milan Obradovic, a Serb journalist in Bjelovar wrote a pamphlet entitled: "How the Jews have for forty years deceived the wretched and ignorant Croats, that they are Croats of the Mosaic faith and thus have enslaved them, frustrated them politically, sucked them dry materially, cramming all the Croatian money into their own tills and pockets." 

Bjelovar.  This fellow lived in Bjelovar which is in Croatia and yet he writes: "wretched and ignorant Croats?"  Uh huh.  Jup, that's what what he wrote.  Just a dumb question - if I'm a non-Serbian element not worth of rights in Serbia, what is this Serbian fellow doing in MY HOME, in the region of my ancestors? Explain to me this, please.  I'm not angry about him being there, but please explain to me  this.  I don't understand.

What does this have to do with the music of Croatia?  It has a lot to do with our music.  Where is the music today from our "Mosaic Croatian brothers"?  Where is it?  Can I hear this music to make up my own mind do I like it or not?  Play this music please.  I wish to hear it just to know how it sounds.  Why do I not have this freedom to hear this poetry and this music played and sung by my "Mosiac Croatian brothers."  Who took this freedom away from me?  I thought I was free, but, maybe not.  Not yet. 

The Englishman on BBC during the Homeland War said something along the lines of 'They bomb our graveyards, they bomb our churches, they bomb our orphanages, they bomb our libraries as if to erase any knowledge that we ever existed.'  If I don't have it word for word exactly as he said it, please don't raise a fuss, you know it was words very much like those and the facts were very much like those words.  At every holiday and every memorial day we run around yelling and writing "Ne zaboravite!"  (No forget).  

No forget. Don't forget.  But we have already forgotten.

It's like someone has chopped off your arm with an axe.  Then they swing the axe at your head but they don't succeed in chopping off your head.  So then, you go around saying "I will never forget!, Ne zaboravite. Nikada" when you talk about the strike aimed at your head, but you don't miss your arm. You've already forgotten all about your arm.   

We have have forgotten.  

As long as we have forgotten, the men who declared that we Croats, as "non-Serb elements" should have no rights,  as long as we have forgotten, the men who called us "wretched and ignorant", have won.  They have won and we do not have our country back.  As long as we have forgotten, we are not yet free.  Worse, as long as we have forgotten, they are right, we are wretched and ignorant.

We must remember.  We cannot to forget.  We must not to forget.  

Sviraj, moj brat, sviraj.  kad  čujem vaša glazba svira, ja ću biti slobodan.

Ne zaboravite. Nikada!

Play, my brother, play.  When I hear your music playing, I will be free.

Don't forget.  Never!

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

19 Rujan 2011