reply to Turkish Sultan

[Ambiorix]

Cossacks writing incredibly insulting reply to Turkish Sultan's demand for surrender (1675). They laugh their socks off over each word.

Picture by Repin.





"Thou Turkish Satan, ...
Greetings !
What the hell kind of noble knight art thou ? ...
Thou beer-brewer of Jerusalem, thou goat-flayer of Alexandria,
thou swineherd of Egypt, both the Greater and the Lesser,
thou sow of Armenia, thou goat of Tartary ...
a blockhead, a swine's snout, a mare's ___, a butcher's cur, an unbaptized brow, May the Devil take thee! That is what the Cossacks have to say to thee, thou basest-born of runts ! Unfit art thou to lord it over true Christians !
The date we write not for no calendar have we got; the moon is in the sky, the year is in a book, and the day is the same with us here as with thee over there, and thou canst kiss us thou knowest where !