The Sea Grave (Plava Grobnica)

Thanks to Ljubomir Saramandic for sending me an English translation of the poem "Plava Grobnica" by Milutin Bojic (see earlier posting on the topic of the poem and the Serbian evacuation of 1916 to Corfu and Vido island).

Here are some extracts from the English translation (from Ljubomir's book, "Pilgrimage to Corfu") by Mihailo Djordjevic:

The Sea Grave

Beneath the sea, on sleeping shells
And weeds that gently fall,
Lies a grave of heroes, brother next to brother,
Prometheuses of hope, apostles of tragedy.

Don't you feel how gently the sea swells
Not to disturb their eternal rest?
From the deep a sense of peace prevails,
While an exhausted moon gazes at the sea...

Can't you feel from these blue depths
That piety rules these seas
And the air is rife with mystery?
The souls of heroes walk the seas...

For many centuries will pass
Like waves which rule the seas.
And a new generation will build a house
Of glory of these very graves.

The poet describes the tragic sea-grave under the blue waves around Vido, and demands silence for his requiem mass in honour of those fellow Serbs whose bodies were buried in the sea.

For the Serbs, the waters around Vido are sacred, "holy waters". Why not have this poem to hand next time you go to Vido and visit the Serbian Memorial or listen to one of the moving Serbian renditions of Plava Grobnica on YouTube?

Thanks, Ljubomir, for sharing this translation. I look forward to seeing your complete book in English translation.

Update 2013


The island of Salvation for the Serbs, from corfuhistory.eu (Κέρκυρα 1916-1918: Το νησί της Σωτηρίας για τους Σέρβους).