Despot Stefan Lazarević, a descendant of the Kosovo hero Prince Lazar, was a wise ruler, a warrior and a poet, who left his mark on time with his pen even more than with his sword.
His spirit was lofty, his thought luminous, and his word profound. He translated the mysterious writing "On the Times to Come," a prophetic word confronting a gloomy horizon. His "Funeral Lament over Prince Lazar" - a son's lament for his father, preserved in the shadow of old manuscripts - pays tribute with love woven into verse. The Kosovo marble pillar, bearing the inscription of Despot Stefan, still bears witness today to the immortality of the Kosovo heroes. But the most radiant of all, woven of undying love, is his "Homily on Love," a poem of brotherly, friendly and divine love, a call to peace and reconciliation. For the Despot, love is the greatest commandment, loftier than the beauty of nature which he admires and loftier than all else, for "God is love." The Despot's charters, letters and laws all bear the seal of wisdom and poetry. To Hilandar he bequeathed words of prayer, and to Serbia the foundations of culture. In him lived the spirit of a prophet, a ruler and a poet. And while time erases all traces, his word remains to shine through the dark centuries, bearing witness to a grace-filled soul that loved, suffered and created.
Despot Stefan Lazarević, a descendant of the Kosovo hero and martyr Saint Prince Lazar, was, among other things, a man of exceptional learning. He was not only a skillful ruler, diplomat and warrior, but also a founder of endowments and a patron of culture, as well as a significant man of letters. He is believed to have been a polyglot - to have spoken several foreign languages: besides his native Serbian Church Slavonic, Despot Stefan had a command of Greek and Latin, as well as Turkish and Hungarian, and perhaps some other language too.
According to manuscript tradition, and also in the opinion of historians of Serbian literature Đorđe Sp. Radojičić (1905–1970), Milan Kašanin (1895–1981), Đorđe Trifunović and others, it is held that Despot Stefan Lazarević translated into Serbian the writing known by the title On the Times to Come -