Daar is 'n legende dat die Turkse Sultan Mehmed IV in 1676, na jare se gesukkel om die Kosakke te onderwerp, 'n ultimatum aan hulle gestuur het "om hul land aan hom te onderwerp en hom nie verder te pla nie".
Die Kosakke het hul beste woordsmitte bymekaargemaak om 'n gepaste antwoord te skryf:
O sultan, Turkish devil and damned devil's kith and kin, secretary to Lucifer himself. What the devil kind of knight are you, that can't slay a hedgehog with your naked arse? The devil excretes, and your army eats. You will not, you son of a bitch, make subjects of Christian sons; we've no fear of your army, by land and by sea we will battle with thee, fuck your mother.
You Babylonian scullion, Macedonian wheelwright, brewer of Jerusalem, goat-fucker of Alexandria, swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, pig of Armenia, Podolian thief, catamite of Tartary, hangman of Kamyanets, and fool of all the world and underworld, an idiot before God, grandson of the Serpent, and the crick in our dick. Pig's snout, mare's arse, slaughterhouse cur, unchristened brow, screw your own mother!
So the Zaporozhians declare, you lowlife. You won't even be herding pigs for the Christians. Now we'll conclude, for we don't know the date and don't own a calendar; the moon's in the sky, the year with the Lord, the day's the same over here as it is over there; for this kiss our arse!
Tweehonderd jaar later het die groot Russiese skilder Ilya Repin sy beroemde skildery daarvan gemaak - die duurste van alle Russiese skilderye nadat Tsar Alexander III dit gekoop het.
(Dis dieselfde Ilya Repin wat Die Optog na Kursk geskilder het.)
Dit is en bly 'n meesterstuk van karakterstudie.
Die maan is in die hemel, die jaar is die Here s'n, die dag hier is dieselfde as daar....
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