Il "Ciclo del Cossovo" di Milan Rakić

Abstract

The essay examines one of the central themes of the work of Milan Rakić, one of the greatest exponents of Serbian Modernism: the cycle of compositions that focus on the history and current affairs of that region, which has always been disputed by Serbs and Albanians. These poems arise from Rakić’s personal experience in Kosovo, still subject to the Ottoman Empire, where he had been sent at the beginning of his diplomatic career. Of the seven poems in the cycle, five sing about the tragic destiny of that land, the cradle of Serbian religiosity; one, Na Gazi Mestanu, associates the taste for historical reenactments of Parnassi’s poetics with the passionate defense and proud exaltation of the Serbian people who in centuries-old relations with their homeland have drawn the stimulus for rebirth; the last, Legacy, the most evocative and vibrant, raises that indissoluble bond with the spiritual richness of the past as a reason for existential comfort. What the love of a woman had not been able to give to the poet is offered to him by the rediscovered communion with the historical consciousness of his own race.