The Sirdar

Grigor Prlichev, the poet from Ohrid, is unquestionably the most highly developed a personality in Macedonian literature in the past century. The true perfection of his verses quite justifiably gained for him the flattering epithet a Second Homer. He shone as an impressive writer and impassioned lo¬ver of the fine word. With the gems of poetic expression in his long poem The Sirdar (original “O Armatolos”*), Prlichev came to be the pride of Macedonian literary history. At the same time, as a writer, he represents a unique phenomenon in his vision and in the pro¬fundity of the creative tragedy of his own voluntary and uncompromising choice. The Sirdar tells the story about the death of a legendary hero who protected the villagers from the Albanians gangs (of people Ghegis). The action in the poem takes place in the middle of the 19th century in the western parts of region Macedonia, respectively the region between Galichnik, Reka, and the village Stan (nowadays North Macedonia).