(excerpt)
Victor was more surprised than delighted by Sultana’s voice and lyrics, so he asked her to repeat some of them so he could write them down. The difficulty was deciding which songs to choose because he loved them all. The songs described warmth, joy, and love, but among all those things, the pain was most apparent, giving them a special melodiousness, stretching them in a specific and rare seven-eighth beat. “And why should Mr. Grigorovich write down only a few, when we can all write them down for him and collect many more?” asked Mitra to everyone’s surprise, enraptured by the pleasant atmosphere, the songs, and the wine. “A few days ago, I heard another bunch of verses and stories from Janinka and Trajanka that make a person’s heart tremble and their words send shivers through the skin. We can gather everything I know, Mother Sultana, Janinka, Trajanka, and the rest of the washerwomen and maids know, and we can make a book. Let’s make our book with all the songs and let it around the world everyone to admire it…” “No!” growled Dimitar in the same tone of voice that had caused Mitra to leave home the night before. “No, and get that idea out of your head right away!” “I think that’s a nice idea,” Victor interjected. “It would be a great waste if the songs that your mother, your wife, and all the women here know are not spared from oblivion. After all, what is it that scares you? Who suffered any harm from a song?! Here, let me be the first who will record the first few songs. A fairly nice book could be made; it would contain collected poems from many places, and the sources would be the washerwomen that Mitra mentioned knew many songs. That book will have great significance for your long-standing tradition, but also your culture and existence. If there are songs from a nation, it also means that that nation existed. Here, I offer and guarantee you my support, which you will need in the process of preparing the book. Perhaps the work in practice could be more complicated than we can imagine now since it is the first time that a book of this kind is being made here in your country, but I am confident that this will not be an obstacle leading to cancellation or unnecessary delay. Your part will be to collect the songs, as much and varied as possible, and write them down in one place. My part will be engagement in the book to be printed and, as Mitra said, distributed to the world. That world will not only be delighted by the book but will also be awakened by the verses that will be in it. Let this evening’s feast be an early celebration of the success and significance that the book will achieve.” Victor’s appearance gave Dimitar some security, so the words he said did not sound as terrible as they sounded from Mitra’s mouth. “It would be even better if you write down the poems in your script, in the local language you speak, instead of in Greek.” “The language we speak here doesn’t have its own grammar, it is ours and for us, not to roam around the world, as you want to do with our songs,” said Dimitar. “There is no grammar, teacher? Well, that’s your job, to make the rules, not to get your hands dirty with mud and clay. I would like to learn the language you speak here, but by what rules? How can I learn it?” “I can teach you by some rules that I drew up myself after a long look at the words and the way they arise and change. I also have a primer – Abecedar, but its content is simple even for children and even though it is written in Lerin dialect, it is still written in Latin script, so the lessons will be based on the grammar I invented,” Mitra interjected again, as she was not frightened by Dimitar’s raised tone with which he had previously warned her and as if she wants to show him that no high tone or anything would frighten or discourage her. “You can be my disciple, for I am certainly looking for disciples. You can stay with us, for which you will pay for yourself, you will pay the cost of the food you eat if you want to eat here, and of course, you will pay for the classes, which you will attend with several of my other students. Since you are an adult and for adults, it is more difficult than for children to retain the said things in the head the price for you will be a little higher, but I believe that an assistant professor at a university will be able to afford it. Those are my terms; do you accept them?”