The Building of Yugoslavia: The Yugoslav Idea and the First Common State of The South Slavs

Abstract

Three full brothers were building a city,Three full brothers, three Mrljavcevices:The first brother was King Vukasin,The second was Voivode Ugljesa,The third was Mrljavcevic Gojko;They were building Skadar on the Bojana,They were building for full three years,For three years with three hundred masons,But they could not lay the fundament,Much less raise up the turreted city:What the masons built by the dayThe highland oread destroyed by night.Upon the dawn of the fourth year,The oread cried from the mountain:“Do not torment yourself, King Vukasin,Torment yourself and waste your treasure;You cannot, O king, lay the fundament,Much less raise up the turreted city,Until you find two kindred names,Until you find Stoja and Stojan,One a sister and the other brother,And wall them up in the fundament,So that the fundament will be maintained,So that you will build your turreted city.”[From a Serbian epic song “The Building of Skadar,” quoted by Ivo Banac, The National Question in Yugoslavia, p. 406.]