Reciprocity between the Various Tribes and Dialects of the Slavic Nation

On Literary Reciprocity between the Various Tribes and Dialects of the Slavic Nation

On Literary Reciprocity between the Various Tribes and Dialects of the Slavic Nation 1 Introduction One of the most beautiful and wondrous flowers which has recently sprouted and developed on the territory inhabited by the many tribes of the Slavic people is the so-called literary reciprocity, in Slavic wzájemnost , Russian Взаимносшь.1 For the first time, after many centuries, the dispersed Slavic tribes again see themselves as one single great people and their various dialects as one single language. They awaken to national feeling and long for a closer unity. The clouds of error and delusion disperse. Weary of the long brawl, of hollow and petty-minded divisions and consumptive decomposition, people are casting aside the chains of the old prejudices to take possession of the lost rights of nature and reason, and elevating themselves to the love of their fellow man and brother. This alone enables unhappy nations to transform themselves and make themselves happy. The Slavic nation strives to return to its original unity, as the plant, with flowers and fruit, seeks to return to its bud and seed. One common bond, which countries and seas cannot divide , invisibly reaches through tribes and dialects. Present-day Slavs are not merely capable of a literary-spiritual bond of this sort: it is for the majority of them a pressing need. This idea and vision deserves careful attention and general consideration from every educated Slav. It is something new in today’s Europe, unique and original, but very important and successful for the entire Slavic nation, even if innocent but easily-made misunderstandings and confusions may occur. A great idea that elevates the spirit cannot appear in international public life without a double battle: on the one hand with the enemies of the idea, who oppose its propagation and wish to suppress it, and on the other hand with the friends of this idea, who try to explain and implement it, but do not understand its original meaning. The mistaken blows of the latter often do more damage than the former. Thinkers, educated people, the better and nobler among a nation are not 74 JAN KOLLÁR the only ones to embrace with enthusiasm new ideas in public life. The selfish and excitable, the faddist and the rabble also cast themselves as defenders and propagators of the idea without feeling or understanding the idea’s purity, significance and grandeur for themselves. The more powerful and important a thing is, the greater the number of people it may affect, the richer and more significant its consequences for life, the easier it can be misused—and the more frequently one should ponder it, speak and write about it; the more industriously one should consider how to spread correct ideas about it. And precisely this is the goal of the present text. The author of this work brought this idea to the public seven years ago, but only briefly, in his Rozprawy o gmenách (Buda, 1830: 345). With time, he has thought about it more and more, read texts here and there, texts from other nations. He has used their perspectives with the intention to become not just a one-sided Slav, but to win where possible a European perspective. 2 What Does the Word Reciprocity Actually Mean? Reciprocity [Wechselseitigkeit oder Gegenseitigkeit], Slavic wzájemnost, is not a new word, but rather indigenous, and can be found in Old Slavonic , Russian, Polish, and other dialects. It corresponds to the Latin Reciprocitas (from recipio, recapio). Etymologically it comes from the root jati, zagati, přigjmati, Old Slavonic and Russian заемньій, взани- маю, взаимсшвованіе, and means “to take and give again, to loan and to grant, to embrace one another.” The usual Czech word obapolnost does not capture the concept entirely, since the words obě and pol, polowice only considers two halves of a matter, or of two sides; wzájemnost on the other hand can exist between three, four, five, and more parties. Wzájemnost is therefore a common endeavor, mutual exchange, and a unifying pleasure. Literary Reciprocity however, the common participation of all tribal branches in the spiritual creations of their nation, means the reciprocal purchase and perusal of writings or books published in all the Slavic dialects. Every dialect should generate vital force from the others in order to rejuvenate, enrich, and educate itself. A dialect should not refrain from encroaching on others, nor seek to avoid being encroached upon, but should progress in its own free sphere with all the others. With Reciprocity...