Thou silly great oaf of all the world

Fri 17 August 2012

Thou silly great oaf of all the world

Filed under: #satscene —— Sylvia @ 18:22

On the 11th of August 1680, Cossack military leader Ivan Sirko died at his estate in Hrushivka. John III Sobieski, who would become the king of Poland, described Sirko as “very quiet, noble, polite and has a great trust among Cossacks”. But he is probably best remembered as the man who wrote the Most Defiant Cossack letter, in response to the Sultan of Turkey.

Sultan Mohammed IV of the Turkish Empire apparently demanded that the Cossacks of Ukraine (Zaporozhians) should voluntarily accept Turkish rule.

InfoUkes: Ukrainian History — The Cossack Letter: “The Most Defiant Letter!”

What the hell kind of noble knight art thou? Satan voids and thy army devours. Never wilt thou be fit to have the sons of Christ under thee. Thy army we fear not, and by land and by sea in our chaikas will we do battle against thee.

Thou art the Babylonian scullion, thou beer-brewer of Jerusalem, thou goat thief of Alexandria, thou swineherd of Egypt, both the Greater and the Lesser, thou Armenian pig and Tartar goat. Thou hangman of Kamyanets, thou evildoer of Podolia, thou grandson of the Devil himself, thou great silly oaf of all the world and of the netherworld and, before our God, a blockhead, a swine’s snout, a mare’s ass, and clown of Hades. May the Devil take thee!

You may be interested in a more modern translation undertaken by Wikipedians, which is more detailed, not to mention quite a bit ruder! See the talk page for a discussion on the translation.

Meanwhile, on the 11th of August 2012, no one on Twitter was the least bit foul-mouthed and we all happily shared our photographs with each other. Take a look!