 Because of the cold Moscow climate, it is these dark and dreary feelings that nurture his yearning for the warm sunshine of the South.By exclusively using positive epithets to depict the native soil, the author evokes the painful, unattainable desire to return to his homeland, symbiotically embracing it.Regarding the lyrics, he mentions several cities then in the Ottoman Empire; Stambol that is actually Istanbul, present-day Turkey, and Kukush Kilkis, present day Greece.