Motif #4
With the fourth motif we reach the end of Shouting in Prison in these three texts, the actual coda once again marked by boundary lines and followed by the "Bargaining for Release" theme, but this time with the ban rather than his wife as the bargaining agent. (There is no occurrence in 1283.361ff.)
n | "Ako neces[*] , od Zadarja bane, | |||
n | "A tako mi Boga gospodara, | A tako mi Boga jedinoga, | ||
Ja cu[*] bacit' malog Marijana, | ||||
Bacicu[*] ga niz bijelu kulu; | Bacicu[*] ga niz bijelu kulu; | 455 | ||
Nek ti slomi ja nogu ja ruku. | Nek ti slomi i nogu i ruku. | |||
Više jesi ostarijo, bane, | Jesi, bane, više ostarijo, |
[50] We may compare, for example, "Ja ga smici, ja ga preprodaji, / Ja ga spremi na svoju Krajinu" (1283.58-59) with Kukuruzovic's[*] "Ja ga daji, ja ga preprodaji, / Ja ga pusti na zemlju turciju[*] " (1287a.29-30). It may well be that these particular phrases, and others like them, exhibit a degree of stability because of the syntactic balance and sound-patterning evident in their structure.
Govno ces[*] ga drugog naciniti. | 400 | Govno ces[*] ga drugo' naciniti." | |||
(6597 .452-58) | |||||
h | Ve' cu li me, o' Zadarja bane, | ||||
Onog suznja iz tamnice tamne— | |||||
Ja ga smici, ja ga preprodaji, | |||||
Ja ga spremaj na svoju Krajinu." | |||||
(291b .396-404) | |||||
n | "If you will not, ban of Zadar, | ||||
n | "I swear by the master God | I swear by the one God | |||
I will cast young Marijane, | |||||
I will cast him down from the | I will cast him down from the | 455 | |||
Let him break either arm or leg. | Let him break both arm and leg. | ||||
You have aged too much, ban, | You have aged too much, ban, | ||||
You won't ever father another | 400 | You won't ever father another | |||
h | But hear me, ban of Zadar, | ||||
This captive from the dark prison— | |||||
Either remove him, or ransom him, | |||||
Or prepare him for his Krajina." | |||||
Within this motif, essentially an intensification of the banica's complaint, we again encounter the n element, the threat to kill the infant, and in one instance the h closure used consistently in Kukuruzovic's[*] versions. But although these features are shared by the two singers in their idiolectal forms of motif #4, we should note the omission of elements m and x in the Basic[*] passages, as well as the general lack of verbal correspondence between the two sets of occurrences. Element m seems to be a stylistic feature of Kukuruzovic's[*] texts; strictly speaking, it is not absolutely necessary to the action of the motif and theme, so we may expect its absence in the repertoires of this or that guslar . Element x , in contrast, depends on the story-pattern for its raison d'être: if the ban himself goes to conduct the bargaining, he obviously will not need to send his wife. The essential ideas of the motif are thus preserved, as Basic[*] , employing
his own idiolectal language and elemental structure, tailors the traditional action of the unit to its place in the story at hand, which is also the Return Song at large.