Today the name "Kosovo" applies to a large region of southwestern Serbia. In the epics it refers specifically to a large plain where the famous battle took place. (The plain was also the site of several lesser battles both before and after 1389.) The plain is about 15 miles wide and 50 miles long (about one-fifth of the Kosovo region) roughly following the Sitnica River. The plain is often called "Kosovo Polje" [POHL-yeh], and a town on the plain goes by that name. The word polje means "field", and kosovo is the genitive form of kos, meaning "blackbird"; thus Kosovo Polje is sometimes called the "Field of Blackbirds". In this English translation of the poems "Kossovo" is pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable. Kroushévatz