Spring Circle Dance, a Poem by Prof. Ljiljana Samardžić

As I listen to the Spring Circle Dance

of our good neighbours, the Romanians,

my soul expands, leaving my body, soaring above the beautiful Balkans...

I look at the mountains and hills

covered in dense forests,

the fields, plains, lakes,

and rivers flowing into 

the blue waters of four seas.

I see the traces 

of long-vanished civilizations,

the restored cities

of glorious Roman emperors,

churches and monasteries,

some still in ruins,

others rebuilt,

when the conquerors finally left 

these lands.

I see modern buildings too,

over a hundred meters high,

offering views of half the Balkans...

In love with the beauty of this land 

and its warm-hearted people,

full of spirit and diverse talents,

enslaved since time immemorial

by invading hordes,

from both the East and the West,

who burned, destroyed, killed, raped...

But things were built again,

all from the start,

and children were born...

Greedy and evil,

the conquerors always played 

the same card,

within the Balkan mixture 

of faiths and nations,

of the same roots, similar customs, music, folk dances, "kolas",

and languages...

Divide and conquer 

was the proven card

of every invader of these lands.

If only the Balkan people

respected themselves more,

staying healthy,

in both body and spirit,

as they, still, now are...

If only they resisted the decadence spreading toward the Balkans

from the wealthiest parts of the world, 

those who buy everything,

even a heart ripped out 

of a living, kidnapped human being...

If only we didn't wage wars

among themselves,

committing against one another unprecedented atrocities,

as in the notorious "Yellow House",

at the dawn of the twenty-first century...

If we could all 

just hold hands,

forming one great "kolo",

building together our future...

If only all that could be 

and the hatred among us could vanish...

If only...

Will it ever be?

- Prof. Ljiljana Samardžić

Serbia

A special note about the poem by author:-

This beautiful Spring Dance (Hora Primăverii) was composed by the Romanian composer Vladimir Radu in 1966. I had heard it before on YouTube, and then I came across it again on TikTok; since then, I’ve been listening to it daily for ten days...Last night, this melody brought me back to life after watching a program about the crimes in the "Yellow House," committed by the KLA against Serbs, Roma, and a smaller number of Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija in 1999 and 2000. As I listened, these verses began to flow spontaneously.